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Georgia falls to Vanderbilt 59-54, drops to 4-3 in SEC

Georgia Bulldogs

ATHENS, Ga. – Georgia sophomore Charles Mann tallied his third 20-point scoring night of the season, but it wasn’t enough to overcome an otherwise ice-cold shooting night as the Bulldogs fell to Vanderbilt 59-54 Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum. Georgia slips to 10-9 overall and 4-3 in conference play.

As a team, the Bulldogs shot just 27 percent from the field in the loss—a season low.

“We have to give Vanderbilt credit,” said head coach Mark Fox. “They outplayed us and we got what we deserved. We got beat. We didn’t play well. We can’t shoot the ball like that, we can’t rebound like that, we can’t defend like that and win a game.”

Facing a six-point deficit entering the second half, Georgia tied the game at 28-28 early in the half and successfully weathered multiple Vanderbilt runs throughout the beginning of the second half. The Commodores, however, put together a 9-3 run midway through the half to take an insurmountable nine-point lead. With a minute remaining in the game, Georgia hit a pair of three-pointers to cut the deficit to four, but Vanderbilt hit three of four free throws to ice the game.

Brandon Morris also contributed 12 points. Junior Marcus Thornton led the team with seven rebounds.

Vanderbilt was led by Rod Odom, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Georgia hits the road to play Auburn (8-9, 0-6) on Saturday. The game will tip-off at 1:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on SEC-TV.

Box Score/Schedule

Georgia vs. Vanderbilt Notes
Worth Noting….
• Georgia’s starting lineup was Marcus Thornton (45th career start), Brandon Morris (30th), Charles Mann (25th), Juwan Parker (3rd) and Donte’ Williams (78th).
• Tonight’s loss snaps an eight-game home winning streak. It tied the longest streak of the Mark Fox era, which occurred during the 2010-11 season.
• Kenny Gaines missed his second-straight game after sustaining an injury in last week’s win over South Carolina.
• The loss is Georgia’s second in a row when winning the rebounding battle (38-35).  In conference play, the Bulldogs have yet to have fewer rebounds than its opponent.
• Tonight’s 27.3 percent field goal shooting performance was a season low (31 percent vs. Arkansas on 1/18/14)
• Georgia’s 74.1 percent free throw shooting percentage was its best since the Bulldogs’ win over Gardner-Webb (12/19/13)

The Series:  Georgia now trails its all-time series with Vanderbilt, 86-51.

Next Up: Georgia hits the road to play Auburn on Saturday at 1:30 pm. The game will be televised on SEC-TV. The Bulldogs lead the all-time series 90-88.

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