The return of two of its key interior players and an in-your-face defense helped Georgia get a 54-48 win over visiting Santa Clara in the consolation round of the NIT Season Tip-Off tournament. Howard “Trey” Thompkins made his Georgia debut against the Broncos, scoring 10 points, while Albert Jackson returned to the lineup after missing the Bulldogs’ last game due to a nagging ankle injury. Jackson started and finished with 12 points and a team-high five rebounds in 25 minutes. Terrance Woodbury led Georgia in scoring with 14 points.
Thompkins came off the bench, entering the game with about 15 minutes to go in the first half, and quickly made his presence felt under the boards with a defensive rebound. The former Parade All-American got the first points of his career at the 12:42 mark, hitting a baseline jumper to give Georgia an 11-10 lead. “When I took my first shot, I was pretty nervous,” Thompkins said. “But then I went back down and played defense and got hit with an elbow. I felt right at home.”
Thompkins shot 2-of-7 from the field, including 1-of-3 from behind the 3-point line, to go along with a 5-of-6 night at the free-throw line and five blocked shots in 18 minutes of action. Admittedly, the freshman is not at 100 percent as he continues to recover from a high ankle sprain.
Nevertheless, Felton is happy to have him playing. “Trey certainly puts another scorer on the floor for us, for sure,” Bulldog head coach Dennis Felton said. “He’ll just get better and better as he gets experience.”
Georgia (4-1) went on an 11-4 run to close out the first half and take a 24-19 lead at the intermission. Woodbury was instrumental in the run, scoring all seven of his first-half points in the spurt. Jackson was the leading scorer for the Bulldogs in the first half, converting a pair of hook shots on his way to eight points. Georgia forced the Broncos into 25 turnovers, as they tried to deny Santa Clara’s 6-foot-11, 275- pound center John Bryant from getting the ball. “I thought that our aggressiveness was able to take away enough passes and cuts that they had to improvise a lot more than they like to,” Felton said. “That’s obviously what won the game for us.”
Jackson drew the matchup against Bryant for much of the night and more than held his own. “Albert is our most reliable low-post shutdown guy,” Felton said. “We were fortunate to have Albert back this game.”
“We’re going to play against a lot of post guys like that,” Jackson said. “Patrick Patterson (Kentucky), A.J. Ogilvy (Vanderbilt). We’ve got to be able to shut guys like that down. I think this is just a building block for us.”
Bryant came in averaging 20.3 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks per game after averaging 18 points, 9.6 rebounds and two blocks per game a year ago. He led the Broncos in scoring with 12 points.
Santa Clara (1-3) lost its first two games of the tournament by a combined total of seven points, falling to UAB 64-61 and Florida Atlantic 65-61. Georgia will conclude its run in the tournament with an 8 p.m. matchup against Mississippi Valley State on Tuesday night, also in Athens.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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