The Georgia basketball team returned home and put two halves of basketball together to get a 67-66 win over Virginia Tech on Tuesday night. Corey Butler fed Albert Jackson for the game-winning basket with 28.4 left to play. “I just tried to have patience and find something better than my open 3,” Butler said. “I had missed my last two 3s, so I just tried to find something inside, something easier.”
Butler and reserve forward Chris Barnes led the Bulldogs in scoring with 11 points apiece. Virginia Tech’s A.D. Vassallo led all scorers with 23. Jackson had struggled offensively up until the game-winning basket, missing four of his first six shot attempts, but stayed in the game mentally and was ready when Butler presented him with the chance to be the hero. “I just kept my head up and [said] I got to make the next play,” Jackson said. “It wasn’t like we were getting blown out, so I was like it’s still time for me to make a play.”
After trailing 41-38 at the conclusion of another competitive first half for the Bulldogs, Georgia (6-3) definitely wanted to close with a good second half versus the Hokies. In their previous two ball games, the Bulldogs led Western Kentucky 38-35 at halftime before losing 67-63 and trailed Illinois by only seven at the intermission before being outscored 46-19 in the second half to lose 76-42. Against Virginia Tech the Bulldogs finished strong down the stretch and outscored the Hokies 29-25. “Against Western Kentucky, we weren’t able to finish with that last rebound,” Butler said. “That was really haunting us. We said we had to finish this basketball game because it was another close one.”
Jackson got a big rebound after the Hokies missed a couple of point-blank opportunities for the win. Virginia Tech’s final desperation shot with .3 seconds left to play was intercepted by Butler. “It was clearly our toughest, most persistent execution and teamwork, especially under duress,” said Bulldog head coach Dennis Felton.
Georgia got the second half started with a three-point play by Butler to tie the game at 41. Later, Howard “Trey” Thompkins gave Georgia leads of 46-45 and 55-54 with 3-point baskets. Offensive rebounding helped the Bulldogs hang tough in the second half. A Jeremy Price rebound and slam tied the score at 60 and Jackson gave Georgia 62-60 lead. Thompkins finished with nine points in his second start of the season and Price finished with six points and seven rebounds off the bench. “We knew we had to depend on each other to win this game, because it wasn’t going to be a one-on-one game,” Thompkins said. “It took a team effort.”
Barnes was the unexpected star for the Bulldogs in the first half against Virginia Tech (5-4), totaling nine of his 11 points in eight energy-filled minutes of action. “That’s what I bring, energy off the bench,” said Barnes. “I like to get to the crowd into it, get my team into it and I really did that tonight.”
For the game, Georgia out-rebounded Virginia Tech 43-38, including a 16-9 advantage in offensive rebounds. “We talked about that. Rebounding would be the big key to this win,” Barnes said. “We went in crashing the boards. We’ve been working on that for the past two days since the Illinois game.”
Barnes and Price combined to shoot 7-of-9 off the bench for the Bulldogs, as the power forward and center positions accounted for 33 of Georgia’s 67 points. “The whole group played excellent,” Jackson said. “Chris came out and had the best offensive game of his career. Jeremy made every shot he took or got fouled and Trey was just spreading the offense out like we need him to, knock down threes and get rebounds.”
After committing 27 turnovers in their loss to the Illini, the Bulldogs turned the ball over 12 times against the Hokies. “We did execute very well,” Felton said. “We didn’t turn the ball over. We got shots, […] and when you get shots, you get a chance to get second shots, which we got a couple that were critical to our success.”
Vassallo paced the Hokies in scoring in the first half with 14 points and Malcolm Delaney added 11. Delaney, Virginia Tech’s second leading scorer, was held scoreless in the second half. Virginia Tech came into the game with an identical record as Georgia at 5-3. The Hokies lost two close contests at the San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico, falling to No. 9 Xavier 63-62 in overtime and to Seton Hall 77-73. Virginia Tech also lost a 74-72 home game to Wisconsin, which was ranked 22nd at the time. The game against the Bulldogs was the Hokies first true road game of the season. “We […] weren’t poised at times and we missed several free throws,” Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said.
Georgia will next be in action on Dec. 20 when Wofford comes to Athens for a 2 p.m. contest.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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