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Georgia makes it five in a row, beats Texas A&M in a 'slugest' 52-46

Feb 10, 2013 by Georgia Sports Communications

ATHENS, Ga.—Georgia survived a late 8-0 run by Texas A&M to secure its fifth straight win, beating the Aggies 52-46 Saturday evening at Stegeman Coliseum.

Georgia’s current five game winning streak is its longest since the 2001 season.

Sophomore Nemanja Djurisic led Georgia (12-11, 6-4) with 13 points. Sophomore Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 10 points, all from the free throw line.

“Well that was a slugfest, really a physical game, a hard fought game, both teams really defending,” said head coach Mark Fox. We had a lot of respect for Texas A&M’s defense coming into the game. They guarded us very well, and I thought our defense was pretty solid from start to finish. Our kids were hungry and made enough plays to win it, but give A&M credit for playing super hard.”

Georgia raced out to a 12-3 lead, holding the Aggies (14-9, 4-6) without a field goal until the 12-minute mark. Despite Caldwell-Pope being held to just two first-half points, Georgia took a 25-16 lead into halftime after holding Texas A&M to 18 percent shooting in the half.

After leading by as many as nine in the second half, the Aggies pulled to within three, 35-32, with an 8-3 run that ended with nine minutes left in the game. Georgia responded with an 8-0 run, capped off by a Sherrard Brantley three-pointer, to go up 43-32 with six minutes remaining.

With the Bulldogs up 50-40 with a minute remaining, Texas A&M scored eight straight points, but Caldwell-Pope hit two free throws with 17 seconds to secure the win.

Nine different players scored for Georgia.

“We’ve just found more guys that score the ball,” Fox said, when asked what has changed over the last five games. “We don’t have a designated second gun, but we had a lot of guys scoring tonight. We’ve become a pretty solid team on the offensive end when we play together and every one does their job.”

Georgia outrebounded the Aggies 37-33 and outscored Texas A&M 23-8 off the bench.

Georgia returns to action Tuesday night against Alabama at 9:00 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

Postgame Notes
Worth Noting…
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Vincent Williams, Donte’ Williams, Brandon Morris, and John Florveus started today’s game. It’s the same group that started in Georgia’s win versus Texas A&M last month. The lineup is 5-0 this season.
• Georgia has won five straight games for the first time since 2001.
• Georgia made 25 free throws—a season-high.
• Texas A&M’s 46 points is the fewest a Georgia team has allowed since 2/19/05 vs. Auburn (UGA won 57-45).
• Caldwell-Pope has scored in double figures in every game this season. Interestingly enough, tonight he scored 10 points without making a field goal, going 10-for-10 from the free throw line. It’s the first game of his career that he hasn’t scored from the field.
• Caldwell-Pope is one of only 11 players to score at least 10 points in every one of their team’s games this season. He’s the only SEC player and only one of five players from “BCS” conference schools to accomplish the feat.
•Caldwell-Pope ranks sixth in the nation in percentage of team’s points scored. The Greenville native has scored 402 of Georgia’s 1,372.
• Nemanja Djurisic led the team with 13 points. It’s the third time in his career that he has led the team in scoring.
• With an attendance of 7,380, today’s game was the highest-attended of any this season.

The Series: Georgia improves to 2-0 all-time against the Aggies. Today was only the second meeting between the two schools with Georgia winning the first matchup on Jan. 26 59-52 in College Station.

Next Up: Georgia will square off at home with Alabama Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Alabama leads the all-time series 91-47, including 30-27 in Athens. Georgia’s last win in the series came in 2010 at home, 76-70.

Tagged: uga hoops, georgia basketball, kenny gaines, vincent williams, kentavious caldwellpope, nemanja djurisic