Georgia Lady Bulldogs fizzle late on the road vs. Ole Miss
The No. 18 Georgia Lady Bulldogs were outscored 8-0 by Ole Miss over the final 2:13 in a tough loss to the Rebels.
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The Lady Bulldogs took a 52-47 lead over the Ole Miss Rebels on a pair of Tiaria Griffin free throws with 2:22 remaining in Thursday night’s game in Oxford. But Georgia failed to score the rest of the way while Ole Miss scored eight straight to steal away the victory.
Erika Ford paced Georgia (15-3, 3-2 SEC) with a season-high 20 points.
Four starters reached double figures for Ole Miss (14-4, 4-1 SEC), with Tia Faleru and Erika Sisk scoring 12 apiece and Gracie Frizzell and Danielle McCray both chipping in 11.
“Ole Miss played hard,” head coach Andy Landers told Georgiadogs.com. “They were well prepared, and they did a nice job defensively disrupting what we wanted to do.
“Defensively, we played well,” Landers continued. “We did have a couple of breakdowns, back-door breakdowns to layups. Offensively, there were too many turnovers that led to easy points for Mississippi. End of the day, turnovers…missed free throws – and we’ve been shooting those well – did us end.”
Georgia eventually led by as many as six points at 49-43 with 7:31 remaining before the Rebels rallied. Ole Miss tied the score at 52-52 on a pair of free throws from McCray with 1:26 left. After Griffin missed a jumper, Sisk converted on two more trips to the line with 28 ticks on the clock.
The Lady Bulldogs turned the ball over and then fouled with 14 seconds remaining. Sisk made one of two free throws to put Ole Miss on top 55-52. The Rebels fouled Merritt Hempe away from the ball with 6.9 seconds left. She missed the front end of the one-and-one and the Lady Bulldogs fouled again.
Bretta Hart missed two free throws, giving Georgia the ball back with 3.9 seconds remaining, but Griffin’s heave from just over halfcourt failed.
For most of the first half, the Ole Miss upset seemed likely. Georgia got off to a slow start offensively and fell behind 7-2 3:17 into the game. The Rebels gradually expanded that margin, which topped out at 21-11 with 7:35 left in the half on a steal and layup by Faleru.
Ford took things into her own hands at that point. She knocked down a jumper with 7:14 on the clock and scored 12 points during a 17-7 run to end the half.