The Georgia Men’s basketball team hosted the Marquette Golden Eagles on Sunday, December 4, in an epic showdown. However, the Dawgs couldn’t contain the Golden Eagles impressive 3-point shooting and lost 89-79.
During the game, the Dawgs gained momentum and would lose momentum, and at one point during the match came within two points to taking the lead in the second half. However, the big momentum shift for the Dawgs came too soon as the Golden Eagles went on an 11-0 run to clinch the win.
The two leading scorers for the Dawgs were J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten. Frazier scored 22 points, and Maten put up 24 points. This game marked number 24 for Maten on double-digits scores. Mike Edwards scored 11 points. He also brought down a huge dunk in the second half to swing the momentum towards the Dawgs.
The performance by Frazier and company wasn’t enough to secure the win. The Golden Eagles scored 13-out-of-29 3-point shots. During the game, when Marquette would shoot a three-pointer, it would go in. The Golden Eagles also out-rebounded the Dawgs, by 11 rebounds, which doesn’t happen often.
“Our bigs are used to covering in the paint, so it’s a little different when you always got to guard outside. For the guards, we should be used to guarding guys that shoot the three well. So from the guard standpoint, we got to do a better job of closing out and taking away the three-point shot,” J.J. Frazier said.
If someone glanced at the stats, without looking at the score, it looks as if Georgia beat Marquette. The Dawgs caused more turnovers, had more steals and blocked more shots. They also shot 49.2 percent from the floor. However, the lack of rebounding, missing key free throws, and ability to make the perimeter shot caused the Dawgs this game.
“Marquette has a very good offensive team and their offense is significantly better than our defense right now. “We didn’t defend the three-point line, did not rebound the basketball, we had too many deadly turnovers that turned into points on the other end, and the combination of those three things was certainly our demise today,” Coach Mark Fox said.
The Dawgs will continue their home stretch as they play Lousiana-Lafayette on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET.
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