Texas falls flat in 91-80 loss at Georgia
· Yahoo Sports
The five-game winning streak for the Texas Longhorns came to an ignominious end on Saturday against the Georgia Bulldogs in a 91-80 loss that saw head coach Mike White’s team shoot 59.6 percent from the floor and 55 percent from three-point range.
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Guard Jeremiah Wilkinson led the Bulldogs with 19 points as one of five players to reach double figures and Texas didn’t receive much from graduate guard Tramon Mark, who scored four points on 2-of-6 shooting with three fouls and two turnovers in 20 minutes, or junior forward Cam Heide, who went scoreless on one three-point attempt in 16 minutes.
For the Horns, sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis scored a game-high 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting and junior wing Dailyn Swain added 21 points, hitting all eight of his free throws.
But after Texas dominated Georgia on the offensive glass in the second half of last month’s runaway victory, the Bulldogs won the rebounding battle and had a decisive advantage in bench scoring — 34-16.
Combined with Georgia hitting five more threes, those two areas ensured that Texas couldn’t overcome a lead that reached 18 points in the first half.
Georgia started 4-of-5 shooting prior to the first media timeout helped the Bulldogs establish an 10-6 advantage as the Longhorns settled for three made baskets inside arc with Swain scoring all three. Three more threes by Georgia extended the lead to 10 points as Texas senior guard Jordan Pope picked up his second foul trying to contest a rebound after a missed jumper as the Bulldogs threatened to create some real separation after the under-12 timeout.
The ball pressure combined with ball denial by Georgia was giving Texas problems, contributing to six turnovers midway through the first half while the Bulldogs pushed the deficit to 17 points as the Longhorns missed four straight shots while struggling to get shots up at all because of their giveaway problems, going through a scoreless stretch of almost five minutes that didn’t end until Vokietaitis got to the free-throw line, splitting his trip.
When Swain hit a three off the bounce at the 6:42 mark, it ended a streak of six missed shots over six and a half minutes. Three layups in less than three minutes, three free throws by Pope, a three by senior guard Chendall Weaver, and a transition bucket at the rim by the UTSA transfer cut the Georgia lead to single digits at the under-four timeout.
But a four-point play on a foul by Weaver helped swing the momentum back to the Bulldogs with less than two minutes left in the half and Swain had a reverse layup blocked before a put-back slam extended the margin back to 14 points before Vokietaitis dunked a lob from Weaver.
Pope hit a deep three on the final Texas possession to make it 45-35, the final score of the first half after Georgia missed a last-second triple, one of the few misses from distance for the Bulldogs, who went 7-of-10 shooting from three and hit 59.3 percent overall over the opening 20 minutes.
The Longhorns didn’t come out of halftime with any improved defensive intensity or effectiveness, allowing the Bulldogs to make their first six shots, including five straight layups and dunks. Texas did manage to force three straight misses before getting back into the game as Georgia went 1-of-7 shooting and the Longhorns hit five straight, including back-to-back threes, the second of which tied the game at 67-67.
The defensive issues for Texas quickly resurfaced with four straight made baskets by Georgia — two layups, a dunk, and a made three, a surge fueled by two turnovers.
Vokietaitis tried to keep the Longhorns close with two straight dunks, but also committed a foul 25 feet from the basket trying to hedge on a ball screen, his fourth foul, and softly gave up a layup without much hesitation before a turnover led to a fast-break layup that pushed the lead for the Bulldogs back into double digits at the 3:03 mark.
At that point, Texas didn’t have another run left in it, producing the team’s first loss since January.
Head coach Sean Miller’s team faces another difficult matchup on Wednesday when No. 12 Florida comes to the Moody Center for a 6 p.m. Central tip on ESPN2.