Georgia blows out Ole Miss
Published 8:52 am Thursday, January 12, 2017
- Ole Miss guard Deandre Burnett (1) is defended by Georgia guard William Jackson II (0) on Wednesday. Georgia beat Ole Miss, 69-47. (Bruce Newman/The Oxford Eagle)
OXFORD (AP) — Georgia’s Yante Maten was well aware of the scouting report and knew that Ole Miss was one of the best offensive teams in the Southeastern Conference.
That might be true on paper, but the Bulldogs made the Rebels look quite ordinary on Wednesday.
J.J. Frazier scored 17 points, Maten added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Georgia easily handled Ole Miss 69-47 for an impressive road win.
Georgia (11-5, 3-1 SEC) led for almost the entire game, scoring nine straight points to take a 17-9 lead midway through the first half. Once the Rebels got behind, the Bulldogs weren’t letting them back into contention.
“We just tried to match their physicality,” Maten said. “They don’t let up so you can’t give them any ground.”
Ole Miss (10-6, 1-3) had easily its worst offensive game of the season. Before Wednesday’s rough night, the fewest points the Rebels had scored this season was 62 in a loss to Middle Tennessee. Terence Davis led the Rebels with 12 points while Sebastian Saiz added 11.
Ole Miss has been the worst team in the SEC at taking care of the basketball, giving up 15.6 turnovers per game. The Rebels were marginally better on Wednesday with 13 turnovers, but some of them came at crucial junctures when they were trying to climb back into contention.
“Some of the things we do with the ball are unthinkable,” Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said.
Georgia jumped out to a 30-18 halftime lead after the Rebels shot just 5-of-30 (16.7 percent) from the field. The Ole Miss offense was hobbled when Deandre Burnett, who is the team’s leading scorer at 19 points per game, sprained his ankle in the first half and didn’t return.
“We were fortunate that our defense was very good,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “I feel for Burnett who got hurt. That impacted the game, obviously.”
The most reliable scorers for Ole Miss were held in check in the first half as Georgia (11-5, 3-1 SEC) set the tone. Sebastian Saiz, like Burnett, was 1-for-6, while Cullen Neal and Davis were both 0-for-3.
It added up to 16.7 percent shooting in the half, as Ole Miss, down 30-18, trailed at halftime for the fourth time in four SEC games.
“I thought our energy out of the gate was good. The changing of defenses was effective. It was allowing us to stay in the game despite our inability to score,” Kennedy said, “but when you shoot 16 percent in a half …”
For Ole Miss, it was a frustrating loss just a few days after an encouraging road win at Auburn.
“We’ve got to go back to practice, work on our shooting and just try to get our confidence back,” Ole Miss guard Breein Tyree said.