Georgia Basketball: Arkansas Eliminates Bulldogs in SEC Semi-Finals
The Georgia basketball team couldn’t throw the ball in the basket this afternoon and the Arkansas Razorbacks defeated the Dawgs 60-49 in the SEC Tournament Semi-Finals.
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Arkansas took advantage of poor Georgia shooting to defeat the Bulldogs 60-49 in Nashville and advance to an SEC Tournament Finals match up with undefeated Kentucky.
The impact on Georgia’s NCAA Tournament bid will stay unclear until Sunday afternoon, but the loss could hurt the Bulldogs significantly.
Asked Jerry Palm of CBS after the Georgia loss for an NCAA tournament projection now for Bulldogs. Answer was 10 or 11 seed.
— Marc Weiszer (@marcweiszer) March 14, 2015
Georgia played without Kenny Gaines, who aggravated a previous ankle injury in the quarterfinal round against South Carolina. The Dawgs used defense to stay close in the opening half, but with four minutes to play before intermission Arkansas flexed its superior shooting muscle and began pulling away from the Bulldogs.
The game began with both team out of sorts.
“It’s just very difficult to play, for both teams, to play late last night and to turn around and try and play pretty basketball the next afternoon. That’s a lot to ask of these guys.” Georgia head coach Mark Fox told Georgiadogs.com. “I thought both teams played really hard. But it was certainly an ugly game.”
Arkansas enjoyed a 19 point lead lat in the second half before Georgia mounted a challenge. Taylor Echols made back-to-back 3-pointers to bring the Dawgs within nine at the 4:04 mark. But drew Georgia no closer, scoring only two more points before the final horn. 56-47.
Echols ended with 10 points, a career high. Cameron Forte provided nearly Bulldog offense in the first 10 minutes and finished with 13 points, as did Marcus Thornton.
“I thought the fatigue for both teams affected each of us,” Fox told Georgiadogs.com. “It’s a challenging schedule. We had to do it two years in a row. I think that affected both teams. Obviously, not having Kenny (Gaines), that was part of it, too. But we didn’t shoot free throws well, we didn’t play very clean basketball. But I thought both teams were a little bit sluggish.”
The Bulldogs are considered a lock for an NCAA Tourney berth.