Georgia Basketball making most of NIT appearance, advances to quarterfinals with win over Wake Forest
Georgia basketball beat Wake Forest in Winston-Salem on Sunday Afternoon to advance to the NIT Quarterfinals.
A lot of people thought that Georgia's basketball season was over after the SEC Tournament loss to Florida in the SEC Tournament but they received a surprise invite to the NIT and have taken full advantage of it.
They played their first-round game last week against Xavier and were able to pull out a 78-76 win after almost blowing a 23-point second-half lead. The team looked focused throuhgout the game and seemed to be cherishing the opportunity to play together again. It is always a big question when teams get into these postseason events that are not for it all if they want to be there or not but Georgia looked focused in that game.
After defeating Xavier, Georgia's next opponent in the second round of the NIT was against Wake Forest after they defeated Appalachian State. Georgia came into this game at Wake Forest as a decent 8-point underdog considering they were playing a team they had already beaten earlier in the year.
The news broke right before tip that both Georgia and Wake would be without starters due to injury and illness. Georgia was without Tchewa while Wake was without their top scorer Hunter Sallis. Georgia once again jumped out to a huge 19 point lead in the 2nd half and they were able to hold on for the victory to advance to the NIT Quarterfinals against Ohio State.
I know there will be many people that do not think these games matter at all because it is not the NCAA Tournament but it has been good to see the team keep fighting. These games have also provided great experience for Georgia's 3 young freshmen (Demary, Cain and James) to get a lot of minutes against high-quality teams.
Dylan James showed that, having his best game of the year tallying 14 points and three rebounds. At the very least, these games allow the freshman to grow up more and get more time playing good teams.
Georgia's next game will be against Ohio State on Tuesday Night at 7 ET in Columbus, Ohio. This one would be for a trip to the Semifinals, which are held in historic Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indiana.
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