Georgia looks for its sixth win in its past seven games when it visits slumping Ole Miss in a Southeastern Conference matchup on Saturday afternoon at Oxford, Miss.
The Bulldogs (12-4, 2-1) are coming off a 58-50 win over Mississippi State on Wednesday, while the Rebels (8-8, 0-4) dropped their fifth straight game with an 82-73 loss at home to No. 21 Auburn on Tuesday.
Georgia, which has already doubled its win total from last season when it went 6-26, scored its final 14 points from the free-throw line to secure its first win in six meetings against Mississippi State.
“We really guarded at a high clip tonight,” Georgia first-year coach Mike White said. “We got some stops down the stretch when needed. … Mississippi State is very, very good. Every team in this league is. We take every one that we can get. This is a good win for us.”
Terry Roberts, who averages a team-best 15.7 points per game, scored a game-high 16 points. Justin Hill, who averages 7.2 points per game, finished with 12. Braelen Bridges, who averages 7.8 points per game, added 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe chipped in 10 points, but Kario Oquendo, the team’s second-leading scorer at 13.0 points per game, failed to score after going 0-for-3 from the field in 16 minutes.
Ole Miss led Auburn 35-34 at halftime before the Tigers opened the second half on a 17-6 run. The Rebels were outrebounded 38-28.
Matthew Murrell, who averages a team-high 15.3 points per game, scored a game-high 24 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists for Ole Miss.
Tye Fagan, who transferred to Ole Miss from Georgia prior to last season, added 13 points after failing to score in any of the previous four games. Jaemyn Brakefield, who averages 9.1 points per game, chipped in 12 points against Auburn.
Ole Miss is the only SEC team without a conference victory and has dropped 12 of its past 13 regular-season SEC games, with its only win in that stretch coming against Georgia last season.
“Offensively, I thought we played good enough. Our defense let us down,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. “We need to win a game. Everybody needs to win. It makes everything feel good. We just need to win and get that feeling.”
–Field Level Media