Georgia (12-8, 3-5) vs. No. 23 Florida (15-6, 6-2)
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at 7:00 p.m. ET
Stegeman Coliseum (10,523) in Athens, Ga.
Watch: SEC Network (Tom Hart, play-by-play; Jon Sunvold analyst)
Listen: Georgia Bulldog Sports Network. (Scott Howard, play-by-play; Chuck Dowdle, analyst; Tony Schiavone, Producer); Flagship: WSB AM 750 Atlanta; Satellite: Sirius: 137, XM: 380
The Starting 5…
• In stats for league games only, UGA is No. 2 nationally in FG defense among Power 5 teams.
• UGA has four top-50 RPI wins, second-most in the SEC behind Florida and LSU with five each.
• UF is UGA’s most frequent opponent. This eveing’s game is the 215th meeting on the hardwood.
• Yante Maten is the only player in the SEC’s top 10 in scoring, rebounding, FG pct. & FT pct.
• Juwan Parker, the only DI MBB player with a master’s, is 3rd on UGA’s career FT pct. leaders list.
Home Date With Gators Breaks Up Bulldogs’ Road-Heavy Stretch
Georgia will host No. 23 Florida on Tuesday in a welcome break from a travel-intensive portion of the Bulldogs’ schedule. Georgia is in the midst of playing five road outings in a seven-game span.
Georgia slipped to 12-8 overall with Saturday’s loss at Kansas State in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. The Bulldogs are 3-5 in the SEC.
Yante Maten, one of 25 players on the Midseason Watch List for the Wooden Award, leads the SEC in scoring by nearly a full point per game at 19.6 ppg (Arkansas’ Jaylen Barford is second at 18.8 ppg). Maten also is second in the league in rebounding at 9.2 rpg and is the only SEC player ranked among the conference’s top-10 in scoring, rebounding, FG pct. (No. 7) and FT pct. (No. 7).
Maten has been a picture of consistency for the Bulldogs.
In 20 games this season, he has 19 double-figure outings, with nine double-doubles and 10 20-point performances.
Over 83 games since the start of his sophomore year, Maten has 75 double-digit scoring performances, with 32 20-point and five 30-point outings, and 24 double-doubles.
“Turtle” Jackson is the Dogs’ second-leading scorer at 9.5 ppg, with 11 double-figure games. Juwan Parker is UGA’s second-best point producer in SEC action at 9.4 ppg.
Florida is 15-6 overall and 6-2 in the SEC.
Jalen Hudson comes off the bench to average a team-high 16.5 ppg for the Gators, while Egor Koulechov (14.5 ppg), Chris Chiozza (12.6 ppg) and KeVaughn Allen (11.4 ppg) contribute a double-figure pace.
Keeping An Eye On…Entering Today’s Game Among UGA’s Career Leaders
Yante Maten is…
• 17 points from No. 6 Bob Lienhard
• 37 points from No. 5 Walter Daniels
• 46 points from No. 4 Dominique Wilkins
• 49 rebounds from No. 6 Lavon Mercer
• 97 FTs from No. 3 Litterial Green
• 126 FTAs from No. 3 Alec Kessler
• 69 blocks from No. 2 Charles Claxton
Series History With The Gators
Florida enters Saturday’s game with Georgia sporting a 113-102 advantage in the all-time series; however, Georgia is 62-39 against the Gators in Athens.
In the most recent matchup between the interstate rivals last Feb. 7 at Stegeman Coliseum, Georgia dropped a 72-60 decision to the No. 17-ranked Gators.
After the Bulldogs scored the game’s first five points, the Gators raced to a 29-14 lead just under the midway point of the first half.
Georgia responded with a 15-0 surge of its own and tied the game at 31-31 on a Yante Maten jumper with 3:05 left in the period. The Bulldogs’ momentum was thwarted, however, when Maten suffered a cut on his lip during that play which forced him to miss the rest of the half while receiving stitches.
The Gators gradually expanded a two-point lead at halftime to 50-40 with 13:39 remaining. A J.J. Frazier free throw with 7:42 left trimmed the lead to five at 54-49, but that was the closest the Bulldogs got.
Last season on Jan. 14 in Gainesville, Georgia fell 80-76 to No. 23 Florida in a back-and-forth contest that eventually spilled into overtime in the Exactech Arena at the O’Connell Center.
The Bulldogs led for the majority of regulation and 35:11 of the game’s 45 minutes overall but could not pull off the upset.