"Everybody contributed, everybody played hard. That was a team
effort,"
Mohammed said. "We know that for us to win, we have to play as
a team.
We each just try to do what we can, and if we do our jobs, we'll
win."
The Wildcats hold a two-game lead in the East over South Carolina,
which
hosts Kentucky in the regular-season finale on Feb. 28. Kentucky
improved to 63-2 on Senior Day.
"I've got to give Georgia a lot of credit," Kentucky coach Tubby
Smith
said. "They played extremely hard and forced us to take some tough
shots
in the first half. But in the second half, we made some adjustments
and
came out with more intensity."
Freshman Jumaine Jones had 21 points and 12 rebounds and G.G.
Smith, the
son of Kentucky's coach, added 19 points for Georgia (14-12, 6-8),
which
had their season-high four-game winning streak halted.
With the Wildcats leading, 17-13, and 13:38 to play in the first
half,
Georgia went on a 12-2 run, triggered by a layup by Jones and
culminating with a 3-pointer by Mike Chadwick for a 25-19 advantage
with
10:17 left in the half. Smith had 12 first-half points as the
Bulldogs
built a 43-36 lead at the break.
Cameron Mills, a former walk-on who started on Senior Day, buried
a
3-pointer from the right side to start the second half for Kentucky,
and
Scott Padgett converted a three-point play after a layup by Mohammed
as
the Wildcats began the second 20 minutes with an 8-0 run to grab
a 44-43
lead. Georgia misfired on its first six attempts and made only
two of
its first 17 shots in the second half, both by Jones, who had
three of
the Bulldogs' six baskets in the final 20 minutes. With the game
tied,
58-58, Kentucky went on a 20-4 run to put the game away.
"We came out with a lot of confidence," G.G. Smith said. "But
we need to
play a full 40 minutes in order to win. We weren't able to put
a full
game together, and those last 10 minutes really hurt us. We have
to hit
our shots to be able to beat Kentucky."
(10) KENTUCKY 85, Georgia 74
GEORGIA (74)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Smith 39 4-11 8-9 0-4 3 0 19
Oliver 16 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 0
J Jones 32 7-15 5-5 5-12 0 2 21
Harrison 23 1-6 2-2 0-3 4 4 5
Chadwick 30 3-10 1-2 1-1 0 2 9
Brown 23 4-6 5-6 2-4 2 5 13
Dukes 15 0-7 1-2 1-3 0 3 1
Ransom 19 2-3 1-2 0-2 2 4 6
Dryden 2 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
A Jones 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 21-60 23-28 9-29 12 20 74
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.350, FT-.821. 3-Point Goals:
9-28, .321 (Smith 3-6, J Jones 2-7, Harrison 1-3,
Chadwick 2-4, Dukes 0-7, Ransom 1-1). Team
rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 2 (Oliver, Brown).
Turnovers: 15 (J Jones 3, Brown 2, Chadwick 2,
Dukes 2, Harrison 2, Oliver 2, Ransom, Smith).
Steals: 10 (Ransom 4, Chadwick 2, Smith 2, Brown,
Harrison).
KENTUCKY (85)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Edwards 26 5-8 2-3 3-6 7 5 13
Mills 10 1-3 2-2 0-1 1 4 5
Mohammed 29 7-11 2-4 2-11 0 1 16
Sheppard 29 4-9 1-1 1-6 8 3 11
Turner 33 3-6 0-0 1-5 5 2 7
Padgett 24 5-13 0-0 3-8 0 1 10
Smith 16 1-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 2
Magloire 1 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 0
Evans 16 7-8 1-5 2-6 1 0 15
Anthony 6 1-2 0-0 1-1 0 2 2
Bradley 9 2-3 0-0 1-3 0 0 4
Masiello 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 36-66 8-16 14-47 22 21 85
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.545, FT-.500. 3-Point Goals:
5-18, .278 (Edwards 1-2, Mills 1-3, Sheppard 2-5,
Turner 1-3, Padgett 0-3, Smith 0-1, Evans 0-1).
Team rebounds: None. Blocked shots: 6 (Mohammed
2, Sheppard 2, Mills, Smith). Turnovers: 21
(Padgett 4, Evans 3, Sheppard 3, Turner 3,
Anthony 2, Edwards 2, Smith 2, Magloire,
Mohammed). Steals: 6 (Padgett 2, Bradley,
Mohammed, Sheppard, Turner).
__________________________________
Georgia 43 31 - 74
Kentucky 36 49 - 85
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 24,272. Officials:
Frankie Bordeaux, Andre Patillo, Curtis Shaw.