Field Level Media
Feb 17, 2018
Senior forward Yante Maten once again carried Georgia to an upset in Southeastern Conference play as the Bulldogs knocked off No. 18 Tennessee 73-62 Saturday evening at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga.
After scoring 23 points in an overtime win at Florida his previous game, Maten came back with 19, as the Bulldogs (15-11, 6-8 SEC) knocked off the conference's second-place team for a second straight outing. Forward Derek Ogbeide added a season-high 16 off the bench.
Guard Lamonte Turner scored 14 points and forward Kyle Alexander had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Vols (19-7, 9-5).
Georgia pulled away from a two-point halftime lead out to a 10-point cushion, 38-28, in the first three minutes of the second half and was still up 46-37 with 11:21 left in the game before Tennessee began chipping away.
The Vols got within 51-49 at the 7:35 mark, but fell back 57-51 over the next couple of minutes, and Georgia rode out the win. Guard Tyree Crump's 3-pointer gave Georgia a 62-54 lead with under two minutes to play.
The two teams struggled mightily trying to get shots to fall in the early going. It was 8-8 after nearly nine minutes had been played.
Approaching the six-minute mark of the first half, the Bulldogs and Vols were a combined 10-of-38 (26.3 percent) from the field, and Georgia was clinging to a 15-10 lead.
But the two teams both began finding the mark with some regularity in the remaining time, and the Bulldogs went to the locker room up 28-26 at the break after leading 21-12 with under five minutes left in the period.
Georgia was 8-of-23 (34.8 percent) for the first half to Tennessee's 11-of-29 (37.9 percent). The 26 points were a season low in a first half for the Vols, who ended up shooting 34.9 percent for the game to Georgia's 42.6.
--Field Level Media