48 Point Second Half Propels Georgia Over Vanderbilt, 82-63

It was the best of shooting, it was the worst of shooting. It was a tale of two halves. Hey-oh! The Dawgs started making baskets in the second half to the tune of 48 points, and the ‘Dores didn’t.

The first basket after the opening tip was the easiest earned of the first half and a better part of the second. Georgia’s Derek Ogbeide had a quick dunk and then both teams struggled from the field.

The defenses were man-to-man and match up zones, often daring players to shoot from the outside and forcing wild shots in the lane. “Badly missed,” “Circus shot,” and “wild drive” are all descriptors I put into my notebook.

Both the Vanderbilt Commodores and Georgia Bulldogs played a sloppy offensive game with plenty of missed opportunities. Vanderbilt shot 33% from the field and 24% from the three point line (6-25).

The Commodores were led by Saban Lee with 12 point with Maxwell Evans, Simisola Shittu, Aaron Nesmith, and Matthew Moyer with 10, 10, and 9, respectively.

Additionally, both teams turned the ball over with regularity.- 10 turnovers for Vanderbilt and 11 for Georgia.

The Commodores went down early to the Dawgs, but Coach Drew called a timeout at the 15:43 mark, and it sent the ‘Dores on an 11-0 run. The ‘Dores continued to control the game, it’s tempo and score. They went from being down 9-4 at the under 16:00 to being up 16-14 at the under 12:00.

Play picked up as the teams made runs to go 31-30 Vanderbilt at the under 4:00 and finally 34-33 Georgia at the half. The first half was defined by an oxymoronic play of patiently aggressive. Both teams knew their strategy and tried to execute it- key word tried. They kept giving chances

Both teams shot 37% from the field, with the difference being at the charity stripe. Vanderbilt was 50% and Georgia was almost 70%.

The second half threatened to pick up where the first left off with all sorts of misses and turnovers. But each team settled down and found a rhythm trying to attack the zone since they couldn’t shoot them out of it.

Frustration spilled over as Coach Drew got a technical only four minutes into the second half as The Bulldawgs began to pull away, 45-39. He wanted a fairly obvious foul call as his team was having trouble making shots.

The Georgia defense gave Vanderbilt fits inside with Nicolas Claxton playing the center of the 2-3 zone, but when they could get a drive out of the offense or a quick hoop off the inbounds pass, they scored.

Georgia, who is has not been good from 3-point line in their last two games, hit two in the first six minutes of the second half that bounced up off the rim, rolled around, did a moonwalk, and bought something from a vender before going in.

That was the spark both teams needed. From that point, Vanderbilt and Georgia exchanged three pointers, going on runs that caused each other to call timeout. They ended up with nine threes on the night.

Rayshaun Hammonds led the Bulldawgs with 19 points, and was the spark plug to carry the Dawgs through the second half.

The Commodores switched off and on from a zone to man, but neither stopped Georgia. In man, the Bulldawgs went inside with Claxton. In zone, the Bulldawgs buried threes in the second half.

Whereas Vanderbilt could not get anything going in a sustained run. By the under 4:00 in the game, the Dores were down 17 points, eventually losing 82-63.