No. 14 Auburn will return from a weeklong break between games to take on Georgia in a Southeastern Conference matchup on Saturday evening in Athens, Ga.
Auburn (20-6, 9-4 SEC) is coming off a 70-59 loss at home against then-No. 22 Kentucky on Feb. 17. That marked the second loss in the past three games for the Tigers.
An injury to forward Jaylin Williams means that Auburn will have to rely more on its depth. Williams, who injured his knee against Kentucky, is averaging 13.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in 26 games in the starting lineup this season.
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said he did not expect Williams to play against Georgia but that the injury was not considered to be season-ending.
“He’ll travel with us to Georgia,” Pearl said. “… We thought it was an injury that didn’t do any major damage, so the timeframe of when he would be back — there was a lot of things talking about 10 days to two weeks (and) so on and so forth. I don’t think there was anything concrete on that.
“He will travel to Georgia. At this point, I don’t anticipate him playing. From that point, we’ll kind of go from there.”
Georgia (15-11, 5-8) is looking for back-to-back wins after holding on for a 76-64 road win against Vanderbilt on Wednesday. That snapped a six-game losing streak for the Bulldogs.
Georgia coach Mike White said he was happy for his players, whose last win came Jan. 24.
“That’s a happy locker room,” White said. “Because our guys — we’ve talked about this all year — our guys work consistently (and) they consistently bring it. Their approach to practice and work overall daily is really good, as good as I’ve ever been around. …
“We saw a team that played like they practiced, and we need more of that.”
Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Noah Thomasson are tied for the team lead in scoring with 12.7 points per game. RJ Melendez is third on the scoring list with 10.2 points per game.
For Auburn, Johni Broome leads the team with 16.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per contest. After Williams, Chad Baker-Mazara rounds out the top three with 9.6 points per game on 44.7 percent shooting, including 41.2 percent from beyond the arc.
Forward Chaney Johnson is expected to fill Williams’ spot in the starting lineup. Johnson is averaging 3.8 points and 3.5 rebounds in 26 games off the bench this season, his first at Auburn since transferring from Alabama-Huntsville.
Guard Denver Jones also could take on a more prominent role as Auburn looks to fill Williams’ scoring void. Jones ranks fifth on the team with 7.9 points per game in his first season with the Tigers since transferring from Florida International, where he played for two years.
This is the first of two games between Auburn and Georgia during the regular season. They are set to meet again March 9 at Auburn in the final game before the conference tournament.
–Field Level Media