With leading scorer Jeremiah Wilkinson out with a shoulder injury, Georgia became the victim of another poor start as defending national champion and SEC leader No. 14 Florida built a big lead and never found itself seriously threatened en route to an 86-66 win.
The Gators have now prevailed in 14 of their last 15 meetings with the Bulldogs. Georgia has lost four of its last five games, and for the second consecutive time on its home court, the Bulldogs lost a game they never led.
Xaivian Lee led the visitors with 18 points and seven assists, while Rueben Chinyelu, a consistent pain for Georgia to deal with underneath the basket, gathered 20 rebounds.
On the other hand, two Georgia starters, Dylan James and Jordan Ross, were held scoreless. James was a -24 despite playing just 12 minutes, and Ross has one point combined in his previous three games.
Coming off an important road win against LSU, Marcus “Smurf” Millender, who had 15 points and five assists off the bench against Florida, blamed the loss on his team’s inability to keep focused.
“I feel like sometimes when we get a big win on the road, or whenever we get a big win, we kind of lose focus a little bit because of the victory,” he said.
With a sizable amount of Gator blue sprinkled among the fans at Stegeman Coliseum, the crowd wasn’t the usual powerful force for Georgia it has been this season. That may have contributed to the Bulldogs’ rough opening, during which they missed their first eight shots and fell behind 10-0.
Georgia didn’t score until a Kanon Catchings 3-pointer at the 14:17 mark, and Florida continued to ramp up the pressure and pace of the game, going up 17 on an Isaiah Brown triple with 7:20 to go in the first half. Brown had 12 points for Florida in a reserve role.
At the 4:47 mark, the Bulldogs were shooting 21%, an exceptionally poor clip from the field. They finished the night not much better, at 35%.
“They don’t allow a lot of threes. They don’t allow assists,” head coach Mike White said of the Gators. “They just did a really good job of one-on-one defense, especially deep in the paint with wall-ups and physicality and forcing some turnovers.”
Georgia’s total output of 27 points in the first half, which would have been two less had Millender not drove all the way down the court for a buzzer-beating layup, is their worst offensive output in a half since SEC play began.
The Bulldogs, who rank in the top 10 nationally in both free throw attempts and makes per game, also did not shoot a single free throw in the first half, after which they trailed 43-27.
But Millender’s last-second score did at least appear to give Georgia some positive momentum entering the second period. Contrary to their slow first half start, the Bulldogs instead scored the first seven points in the second frame and held Florida scoreless for nearly four minutes while reducing the deficit to nine.
Freshman Kareem Stagg, seeing increased minutes in Georgia’s sans-Wilkinson rotation, started the run with a sweet assist to Somto Cyril for a dunk, and eventually finished with nine points.
“I thought that was the biggest positive,” White said of Stagg’s impact. “He showed the potential ceiling he’s got.”
Florida then regained its lead and never allowed Georgia within single digits, as consecutive threes from Thomas Haugh and Urban Klavzar pushed Florida’s lead immediately back to 15.
It eventually ballooned to 22 after Boogie Fland beat the shot clock with a desperation stepback from beyond the arc, and when Georgia rallied again to cut it to 72-62, the Gators wrapped up the victory with a 9-0 burst.
Blue Cain, who contributed 17 points and surprisingly led Georgia with 11 rebounds, said he was still proud of the team’s effort in the face of losing Wilkinson.
“Jeremiah definitely contributes to a lot of stuff,” Cain said. “It wasn’t enough, but I thought some guys stepped up.”
White also saw positives in Georgia’s improved rebounding efforts. Against Florida on the road earlier this season, the Gators mauled the Bulldogs on the glass by a margin of 20. Here, Georgia was outrebounded by just seven against the top rebounding team in the NCAA.
“I thought we threw our bodies around and tried to compete on the glass,” White said. “Nine offensive rebounds [given up] is a little bit of growth for us.”
While the large deficits took away from the arena’s usual crowd noise, some of the loudest cheers came when Georgia brought out its women’s tennis team, fresh off another ITA indoor national championship, and then later its baseball team, which kicks off its season Friday.
The Bulldogs now have two days off before they travel to Norman, Oklahoma to take on the Sooners on Saturday with tipoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET.