Lady Bulldogs Drop Road Game to Number 10 Kentucky Basketball
The Georgia Lady Bulldogs could not close the deal on a second half comeback, losing to Kentucky 80-72 in Lexington.
Facing their third top 10 opponent in three games, the Bulldogs dropped an SEC road contest at the hands tenth ranked Kentucky.
The Lady Bulldogs rallied from a 13-point, first-half deficit to lead by four with 5:42 left but were outscored 10-0 in the last 1:37. Georgia wasted career scoring nights by Tiaria Griffin and Marjorie Butler in the 80-72 defeat at Memorial Coliseum.
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Playing without leading scorer
, Griffin stepped up for the Lady Dogs with a game-high 23 points, while Butler added 13 for Georgia (17-5, 5-4 SEC).
also reached double digits with 14 points, all in the second half. Barbee will not play against this season after suffering a broken leg.
Jennifer O’Neill led four Kentucky (17-5, 6-3 SEC) players in double digits.
“I thought where they did the most damage was on the offensive boards,” head coach Andy Landers told Georgiadogs.com. “They killed us there. Our guards have got the rebound the basketball for us to be successful and today we got hammered by both guards and forwards. Their guards were chasing down balls and rebounding them before they went out of bounds while we watched. There were some turnovers that were huge, but the offensive rebounds killed us.”
Kentucky out rebounded the Lady Bulldogs 43-36 and had 19 offensive rebounds to Georgia’s 23. One-fourth of the Wildcats’ points in the game were off of second-chance opportunities.
The game eventually finished with four ties and six lead changes, after a first half that produced very little drama.
The Wildcats started quickly and jumped out to a 10-2 lead just over three minutes into the game.
Georgia went scoreless for over seven minutes of the first half, but the Lady Bulldogs scored seven points in 19 seconds to close the gap to 30-20. Mackenzie Engram opened the surge with a stick back and foul. After a missed free throw bounded out of play off Kentucky, Engram hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and Griffin converted a driving lay up.
Georgia eventually pulled within five points 36-31 with 40 ticks on the clock, but Bria Goss canned a jumper to extend the margin back to seven at the break.
Georgia pulled within two points four times in the second half before finally taking the lead 59-58 with 8:56 left. Georgia last led 72-70 following a Butler jumper with 2:50 left. The score remained the same until a Jennifer O’Neill 3-pointer put the Wildcats up for good, 73-72, at the 1:37 mark.