For at least three days, Georgia won’t be referred to as the worst basketball team in the SEC. Thanks to an early cushion and 14 points from Ricky McPhee, the Bulldogs beat visiting Vanderbilt 61-57 to claim their second conference victory of the season and move ahead of Arkansas at the bottom of the league. “He always practices and plays the game hard and he can really shoot,” said interim Georgia head coach Pete Herrmann about McPhee, a walk-on transfer from Gardner-Webb. “Those two assets really help him greatly.”
For a change it was not the Bulldogs who started a game ice cold. The Commodores hit only one of their first 16 shots, as Georgia built a 23-11 lead just nearly 13 minutes into the game. The Bulldogs’ defensive game plan coupled with bad shooting from the Commodores contributed to the Georgia surge. “We wanted to make sure we controlled their ball-screen offense,” Herrmann said. “Just constantly stay in front and keep pressure on the basketball, so they couldn’t feed the ball to A.J [Ogilvy].”
The free throw line kept Vanderbilt in it, however, as the Commodores converted on 10 of 15 attempts. Vanderbilt got into the one-and-one at the 10:22 mark of the first half and got into the double bonus with 7:04 remaining. Georgia frontcourt players Trey Thompkins, Terrance Woodbury, Albert Jackson and Jeremy Price all picked up two fouls in the half.
The Bulldogs held a 34-23 at the intermission, but the Commodores made a run in the second half. A 19-5 Vanderbilt surge took the Commodores from a 13-point deficit with 10:58 left to play in the game to a 54-53 lead with 4:28 left. George Drake’s jump shot gave Vanderbilt its first lead, but McPhee answered by draining a 3-pointer to put Georgia back out in front by two. “The guy that was guarding me […] left me open so I knocked down the shot,” McPhee said. “It was probably the good screens we set, I’ve got to thank my teammates for getting me open on that one.”
With a little over a minute left remaining A.J. Ogilvy missed a 3-pointer that would have tied the game at 57 and with 16 seconds left Drake missed a 3-point attempt that would have knotted the score at 59. Thompkins corralled the rebound and the rest of the points of the game for both teams came from the free throw line as the Bulldogs held on for the win.
For the game the Bulldogs had balanced scoring, as Dustin Ware and Corey Butler both contributed 10 points and Thompkins and Chris Barnes added nine. Seven of Barnes’ points came in the first half when Georgia built its lead. The activeness of Barnes and the Bulldogs post players helped contain Ogilvy, Vanderbilt’s 6-11 center. In the first meeting between the two teams, a 50-40 Commodore win in Nashville, Ogilvy led all scores with 18. This time Georgia held him to 12. “Our whole objective was to put a lot of pressure on all of their players when they had the ball and make sure we ramped up the aggressiveness, push the ball early and make A.J. Ogilvy have to guard in all kinds of situations,” Herrmann said. “If you make A.J. guard and guard and rebound and score and everything, it wears him down.”
Georgia’s win coupled with the SEC West last-place team, Arkansas, loss at Alabama means that the eastern division cellar-dweller Bulldogs no longer have the worst record in the league. Georgia’s 2-11 mark is a game better than the Razorbacks 1-12 record. “It is a relief knowing that you are not going to be the last-place team in the conference,” Butler said. “But still you don’t want to be second to last.”
The Bulldogs’ trip out of the basement will have its obstacles, however, as Georgia plays at Arkansas on Sunday. “It’s bittersweet in a way,” Ware said. “In a season like this, you’re always trying to find something to strive for. […] But they’re a tough team. They’re going to play us hard on Sunday. We’re going to definitely have to bring it and try to get our first road win of the year.”
Also, if the Bulldogs lose on Sunday, it would be the first time since the SEC expanded to two divisions back in the 1991-92 season that they would have gone winless against the western division.
After the meeting with Arkansas, the Bulldogs have only two regular season games remaining. They visit Kentucky next Wednesday, before returning home for the regular season finale against South Carolina on March, 7. The SEC Tournament starts on March 12 in Tampa, Fla.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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