Georgia Lady Bulldogs Challenge Ole Miss in Oxford
Tonight at 7:00 Eastern Time the Georgia Lady Bulldogs take a #18 national ranking on the road to challenge Ole Miss.
The Georgia Lady Bulldogs look to break out of an SEC 3rd place five team logjam tonight (January 15) against a 3-1 Ole Miss team.
The game can be seen on the SEC Network +: Richard Cross, play-by-play; Armintie Herrington, analyst, and heard on the Georgia Bulldog Radio Network (AM 960 The Ref in Athens & 103.7 FM from Gainesville); Jeff Dantzler, play-by-play.
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Georgia improved to 15-2 overall with last Sunday’s victory at Auburn. Trailing 47-46 with 3:44 remaining, the Lady Bulldogs outscored the Tigers 11-5 the rest of the way en route to a 57-52 win.
The Lady Dogs are led by Shacobia Barbee with 12.5 points per game, while Tiaria Griffin is scoring 12.1 points per game. Krista Donald is Georgia’s top rebounder at 7.3 rebounds per game.
Griffin posted game-high scoring totals in each of Georgia’s last five outings and is averaging 15.3 ppg in four SEC dates. In stats for league games only, Griffin holds the unique distinction of currently leading the SEC in both field goal percentage (51.2) and 3-point FG percentage (50.0). Eight different Lady Bulldogs – Barbee, Marjorie Butler, Donald, Mackenzie Engram, Erika Ford, Griffin, Merritt Hempe and Pachis Roberts – have combined to score in double figures 45 times for the Lady Bulldogs.
Tia Faleru not only leads the Rebels but also the SEC in both scoring (16.5 points per game) and rebounding (10.7 rebounds per game). In addition, she ranks third in field goal percentage (54.9), third in steals per game (2.5) and fourth in blocks per game .6).
Faleru and the rest of the Rebels will be challenged by the top defensive team in the SEC as the Lady Dogs are nationally un-matched statistically. Georgia is the only Division 1 women’s basketball team ranked in the top 25 in scoring defense (52.3 points per game, ranked 6), three-point percentage defense (35.9%, ranked 24), steals per game (12.3, ranked 12). Georgia is also ranked 29 in field goal percentage defense, .4% out of the top 10 (35.0).
Two seasons ago in Oxford, Andy Landers became the fourth major college women’s basketball coach to record 900 career victories with a 73-54 victory over the Lady Rebels. Landers is now within 10 games of his 950th career win and is 858-289 (1,147 games) in his 36th season as the Lady Bulldogs only full-time Head Coach.
Three members of the Lady Basketball program will return to their Mississippi home for the contest. Associate head coach Joni Crenshaw is from Meridian, while players Krista Donald and Tiaria Griffin hail from Lake and Monticello, respectively.
Crenshaw, who is in her fourth season at UGA, was the 1997 Gatorade Player of the Year for Mississippi. She led Meridian High to a combined 67-7 record as a junior and senior and also won three state titles in track & field.
Crenshaw then played collegiately at Alabama, where she helped the Tide to two NCAA Tournaments and two WNITs. She finished her career with 716 points, 555 rebounds and 103 blocks, a tally that remains No. 4 among Alabama’s career leaders.
Donald was named Miss Basketball by the Jackson Clarion-Ledger and the Gatorade Player of the Year in 2011. She was a four-year starter at Lake High School, where she scored 2,456 points and grabbed 1,470 rebounds during her prep career.
Griffin was a two-time first-team All-State performer, earning 4A honors as a junior at Lawrence County High School and 6A accolades as a senior at Hattiesburg High. She averaged 13.9 ppg as a freshman, 20.0 as a sophomore, 30.1 as a junior and 24.1 as a senior