Georgia Mens Basketball Loses to Arkansas 87-75.

The Georgia men’s basketball team’s drive for the third seed in the SEC Tourney was detoured by an 87-75 defeat at the hands of Arkansas Saturday evening at Bud Walton Arena. Despite the loss, Georgia remains in sole possession of third place in the SEC.

The Bulldogs (16-12, 10-6) were led by Kenny Gaines who scored 25 points. Marcus Thornton also contributed 13 points and six rebounds. However, the Bulldogs could not overcome 16 turnovers .

“Give Arkansas credit, they came to play today and I think our kids did too,” said head coach Mark Fox. “They won the battle of tempo and we played a little faster than we can play well for 40 minutes.

“The difference in the first half was the free-throw line. In the second half, both teams cooled off. Neither team was able to shoot as well in the second half. We just turned it over too much [in the second half] and that really was the difference.” Thirteen of the Bulldog turnovers were credited to Charles Mann and Brandon Morris..

With 12 minutes remaining in the game, three-straight layups by Arkansas (20-9, 9-7) capped a 14-6 run to give the Razorbacks a 60-45 lead–its largest of the game. The Bulldogs fought back, scoring eight straight to cut the Razorbacks’ lead to just seven. With five minutes remaining and after Arkansas had re-established a double-digit lead, the Bulldogs again cut into the deficit when five straight Georgia free throws made the score 65-60.

Arkansas quickly recovered, bolstering its lead back to double digits just a minute later. The Razorbacks held at least an eight-point lead for the remainder of the game.

In the first half, both teams traded the lead several times. The Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run to take a 35-28 lead with five minutes remaining. Arkansas, however, closed the half on a 14-4 run of their own to take a 44-37 lead into the halftime break.

Arkansas was paced by Coty Clarke and Michael Qualls who scored 23 and 20 points, respectively.

Georgia returns to Athens to take on Mississippi State (13-17, 3-14) Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. Senior night festivities will take place prior to the game. For ticket information, go to Georgiadogs.com.