ATHENS —The Georgia men’s basketball team won its third-straight Southeastern Conference game Saturday afternoon, defeating Alabama 70-63 on Senior Day at Stegeman Coliseum.
With the win Georgia (17-12, 10-8) has now split the past 60 games played in Athens with the Crimson Tide (17-13, 8-10). Alabama leads the all-time series 90-49.
The Bulldogs were led on the offensive end by Yante Maten with 19 points. J.J. Frazier and Senior Charles Mann finished the afternoon with 17 and 12 points, respectively.
“I feel very good about the win over a terrific basketball team today,” head coach Mark Fox said. “It was a hard-fought game. With the quick turnaround we anticipated that we probably wouldn’t be the prettiest offensive group today. Give Alabama’s defense credit, but we didn’t shoot it well. We were too tired early to fight for a good shot. Eventually we composed ourselves and fought our way back to win.”
Alabama jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead at the first media timeout, but the Bulldogs responded scoring seven straight points to take the lead at 11-10. Neither team could find any separation over the course of the next 10 minutes as Georgia took a 27-22 lead with three minutes to go in the period. The Crimson Tide nailed a three-point basket several minutes later to bring the score to 27-25 at the break. Derek Ogbeide led the Bulldogs in the first half with eight points and four rebounds in 13 minutes of action.
The Bulldogs buried back to back three-pointers to begin the second half extending their lead to eight with just under a minute played. Alabama came back with a five-point run cutting Georgia’s lead to two. The Crimson Tide took a two-point lead, but Mike Edwards tied things back up at 40-40 with 13 minutes to go with a short jumper. The highlight of the second half came on a UGA fast break when Maten threw down a big dunk giving Georgia a 53-50 lead with 6:50 to go. The sophomore scored an and-one basket several possessions later putting Georgia up six. Georgia made its plays down the stretch securing the victory at 70-63.
The Bulldogs’ next matchup will come in the 2016 SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament played in Nashville, Tennessee starting March 9. Seeding for the tournament will be announced following the conclusion of all conference regular season games.
