Georgia holds off Delaware State
By bzell
By Brent Zell
Dustin Ware had 15 points as the Georgia men’s basketball team downed Delaware State 58-51 Friday in Athens for the Bulldogs’ fifth straight win.
Ken Caldwell-Pope and Donte’ Williams each had 12 points and nine rebounds for Georgia (9-5), which closed out its non-conference slate for the regular season. The Bulldogs open SEC play against Alabama at 7 p.m. EST Jan. 7 in Athens.
Once again on Friday, Georgia was outshot on 3-pointers by its opponent. Delaware State was 10-of-24
(41.7 percent) from 3-point land while Georgia was 7-of-22 (31.8 percent). In their last game, a 92-86 overtime win over Winthrop Tuesday in Athens, the Bulldogs allowed the visitors to shoot 42.1 percent from behind the arc to their 38.1 percent.
However, the Bulldogs hit the 3 when they needed to.
The Hornets led for most of the first half until Ware hit a 3-pointer for a 20-19 lead with 6:11 left in
the half. Caldwell-Pope hit a 3-pointer with 1 second left to give the Dawgs a 32-29 lead at halftime.
Georgia took the lead for good with a 6-0 run in the second half for a 40-35 lead with 12:42 remaining.
Delaware State got as close as 49-46 with 7:50 left, but Caldwell-Pope hit a 3 with 4:28 remaining to give the Dawgs breathing room. Georgia pushed the lead to 10 at one point in the final minutes.
Casey Walker led Delaware State (4-7) with 16 points.