Georgia will look to beat visiting Ole Miss for the second time in about three weeks in Southeastern Conference play Tuesday night at Athens, Ga.
The Bulldogs (14-9, 4-6) lost for the fifth time in their past six games with an 82-57 setback at Texas A&M on Saturday. Ole Miss (9-14, 1-9) extended its losing streak to five games with a 74-71 setback at Vanderbilt on Saturday.
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Georgia struggled mightily against the Aggies without its leading scorer, Terry Roberts (15 points per game), who was dealing with a concussion and didn’t make the trip to College Station, Texas. Roberts will be a game-time decision on Tuesday, Georgia coach Mike White said.
Georgia was dominated from the opening tip, as Texas A&M jumped to a 15-2 lead in less than six minutes before taking a 38-22 halftime advantage. The Aggies put the game away by going on a 10-3 run midway through the second half to take a 63-36 advantage with 10:51 to go.
The Bulldogs were outrebounded 43-30.
“Texas A&M was terrific on the offensive glass, which was the difference in the game, in my opinion,” White said. “It seemed like when we forced a miss or when we had made a couple of shots in a row, they would get all of the important offensive rebounds and converted a lot of them.”
Justin Hill, who averages 7.2 points, scored a team-high 20 for Georgia, while Jabri Abdur-Rahim, who averages 7.7 points, added 18. Kario Oquendo, who averages 12.4 points, was held to two points on 1-of-6 shooting against the Aggies.
Ole Miss’ rally fell short against Vanderbilt.
After Vanderbilt took a 72-61 lead with 57 seconds to play, Robert Allen and Jaemyn Brakefield hit back-to-back 3-pointers to pull the Rebels to 72-67 with 35 seconds left. But Liam Robbins secured the win by sinking two free throws with 21 seconds left.
“We just have these two-minute lapses. We had them tonight. We had great shots throughout the game, great, great shots,” Ole Miss coach Kermit Davis said. “Vanderbilt capitalized on shots they had. We didn’t and lost another close game.”
Brakefield, who averages 9.5 points and 5.3 rebounds, had a team-high 15 points and 12 rebounds on Saturday, while Myles Burns, who averages 6.7 points, added 12. Matthew Murrell, who averages a team-high 14.7 points, was held to 10 on 4-of-15 shooting.
Georgia defeated host Ole Miss 62-58 on Jan. 14 behind Oquendo, who scored all 15 of his points in the second half, while Roberts finished with 14.
Ole Miss was led by Murrell and Amaree Abram, who scored 13 and 12 points, respectively.
–Field Level Media
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