Senior Jabri Abdur-Rahim scored 21 of his career-high 23 points in the first half and Georgia overcame a slow start to defeat Mount St. Mary’s 94-82 at Athens, Ga., on Wednesday to extend its winning streak to six games.
RJ Melendez matched his career high with 18 points and Noah Thomasson added 17 as the Bulldogs (8-3) improved to 7-0 at home. Blue Cain had 10 points for Georgia, which won despite allowing Mount St. Mary’s to shoot 55.9 percent from the floor.
Dakota Leffew scored 26 points and De’Shayne Montgomery added 23 for Mount St. Mary’s (4-7), which fell to 0-4 against power-conference opponents.
Jedy Cordilia scored 13 points for the Mountaineers, who were coming off their first two-game winning streak of the season. Mount St. Mary’s fell to 0-2 against Southeastern Conference teams this season and 0-7 all time against the conference.
The Mountaineers jumped out to a 14-5 lead just over eight minutes into the game as the Bulldogs missed 10 of their first 11 shots from the field. Georgia rallied back with an 11-1 run for a 16-15 lead and pulled away from there.
The Bulldogs took their first double-digit lead at 42-32 with less than a minute remaining in the first half and were up 45-34 at the break. Georgia opened a 53-38 lead early in the second half on a layup by Thomasson.
Mount St. Mary’s pulled within single digits on multiple occasions in the second half and was within 87-80 with 3:03 remaining after a 5-0 run that consisted of a 3-pointer from Leffew and a layup from George Tinsley.
The Mountaineers had a chance to pull within four points, but Dallas Hobbs missed a 3-point attempt with 2:23 remaining. Georgia then closed the game on a 7-2 run.
Georgia has home games against North Florida and Alabama A&M remaining before the start of SEC play on Jan. 6 at Missouri. Mount St. Mary’s has games against Long Island and Delaware State before a return to MAAC play at home against Canisius on Jan. 5.
–Field Level Media