ATHENS - Georgia's Channing Toney said he told himself to be more aggressive offensively.
Georgia coach Dennis Felton said he told Toney to slow down and let it happen.
In any event, Toney snapped out of a three-game slump with a season-high 18 points to lead Georgia to an 89-65 win over Western Carolina on Saturday.
``Early on, Channing had been playing as good as anybody on this team,'' said Felton. ``But he had gone a little over the top with his aggression. He had started to press and play too fast. I had some long, persistent talks with him to not go down that road.''
Toney scored in double figures in Georgia's first seven games and scored nine each in the next two. But over the last three games he made just four of 18 shots.
``I had some good shots,'' said Toney. ``They just weren't falling. I kept practicing and stayed with it.''
Georgia (9-3) also got 17 points from Mike Mercer and 15 from Levi Stukes. Stukes scored all his on 3-pointers. The victory enabled Georgia to surpass last year's win total.
``That definitely means something,'' Toney said. ``The freshmen have made a lot of difference this year. They have been great. They have adapted well to the way we play.''
Western Carolina's (7-8) Corey Muirhead was the game's high scorer with 20 points and top rebounder with 12. David Berghoefer added 13 points for the Catamounts.
Georgia hit nine 3-pointers in the first half, including four during a five-minute span that helped the Bulldogs build a 37-19 lead with 6:01 to go before intermission. But Georgia would not score another field goal in the first half, allowing the Catamounts to post an 11-2 run to narrow the gap to 39-30 at halftime.
Near the end of the half, Georgia was called for a technical foul when six Bulldogs lined up on the floor for an inbounds play after Felton called a timeout to set up a play.
Berghoefer scored the first basket of the second half to pull the Catamounts to within seven points of Georgia. But Georgia answered in short order with four more treys.
A pair of free throws by Mercer with 14:27 to play restored Georgia's 18-point edge, and then Mercer gradually built on it. He followed with an alley-oop dunk and free throw, an acrobatic layup in transition and another layup and free throw to give the Bulldogs a 63-40 lead midway through the second half.
Georgia was on pace to challenge its single-game record of 19 3-point shots made before switching tactics the last 14 minutes of the game. The Bulldogs tried few 3-pointers the rest of the game and made only one, when Kevin Brophy's pass for an alley-oop to Kendrick Johnson swished through the basket instead.
``When they went to a zone, we did not react well,'' said Felton. ``We did not execute well, and we started settling for 3-pointers. I reminded them that we had some big post players on their smaller defenders, and so we started passing more and getting it inside.''
Felton thought the Bulldogs played sound defense against the Catamounts.
``Western Carolina runs really good stuff,'' he said. ``It is very intricate and difficult to keep up with. But we guarded their stuff really well the whole game and kept up with it.''
The Catamounts entered the game averaging seven 3-pointers a game. Georgia allowed two, both late.
``Georgia has excellent quickness,'' said Larry Hunter, Western Carolina's coach. ``They came out from the start and applied a lot of pressure to our guards. They did a good job of denying the ball to our wing players.''
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Tuesday
April 16th, 2024
3:27PM
