Two teams riding winning streaks will meet on Wednesday night when Georgia hosts Mount St. Mary’s in Athens, Ga.
The Bulldogs (7-3) have won five straight games after suffering back-to-back losses to then-No. 12 Miami and Providence in the Baha Mar Hoops Bahamas Championship in mid-November.
The Mountaineers (4-6) recorded their second straight win with a 72-65 victory over Saint Francis (Pa.) on Friday.
A big reason for Georgia’s success has been the play of starting guards Noah Thomasson, Jabri Abdur-Rahim and freshman Silas Demary Jr. Center Russel Tchewa and RJ Melendez, who is now coming off the bench after starting five games, also have provided reliable contributions.
Thomasson averages a team-high 28.0 minutes per game and is the Bulldogs’ leading scorer at 12.6 points per contest. Abdur-Rahim is averaging 12.3 points and 3.6 rebounds a contest, while Demary contributes 8.9 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
Demary collected 12 points, six rebounds and four assists in Georgia’s hard-fought 66-58 victory over High Point on Saturday. Melendez had 11 points and seven boards off the bench, while Tchewa had 11 and six, respectively.
“Really good win for us,” Georgia coach Mike White said. “A long stretch without playing, with exams, and a team that was a dangerous schedule, obviously.”
Like Georgia, Mount St. Mary’s has a talented group of guards as well, led by Dakota Leffew, De’Shayne Montgomery and Joshua Reaves.
Leffew leads the Mountaineers in scoring (17.2) and minutes (37.0) per game, while Montgomery is tallying 12.8 points and 3.5 rebounds. Reaves, who nailed a career-high six 3-pointers in a 20-point performance in the win against the Red Flash, is averaging 8.0 points and 2.2 rebounds per game.
Montgomery was named the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Rookie of the Week on Monday for the second time this season. He scored 14 points in the Mount’s 72-65 win at St. Francis (Pa.).
–Field Level Media