Georgia wins 10th-straight game, tops Arkansas 76-66

ATHENS, Ga. – The Georgia men’s basketball team led wire-to-wire in its 76-66 win over Arkansas, helping secure the Bulldogs’ 10th win in a row on Wednesday evening before 7,820 spectators inside Stegeman Coliseum.

Justin Hill led the Bulldogs (12-3, 2-0 SEC) in scoring off the bench with 19 points and three 3-pointers. Noah Thomasson added 15 points while RJ Melendez had 10 points and five rebounds. Georgia outscored the Razorbacks (9-6, 0-2 SEC) in points off turnovers by a 25-10 margin. The Bulldogs’ 10-game win streak is tied for the fourth-most consecutive wins in program history and the longest win streak since the 1947-48 season. Georgia is also 2-0 in SEC play for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

The Bulldogs swung momentum their way early using a 14-2 run, highlighted by a dunk from Blue Cain in transition to force a timeout from the Razorbacks with just over three minutes to go in the first half. Georgia maintained its energy to build a 34-24 halftime lead, marking only the third time that the team had led by double figures at the half in conference play in the past three seasons.

Despite Thomasson knocking down back-to-back shots from beyond the arc to open the second half, Arkansas began to chip into Georgia’s lead, shrinking it to three points with 6:41 remaining. Jabri Abdur-Rahim’s first 3-pointer of the day gave the Bulldogs a 65-59 advantage at the final media timeout. Silas Demary Jr. connected on a long ball that put Georgia up eight with under a minute to go, helping to secure the team’s 12th win of the season.

Georgia will continue conference play inside Stegeman Coliseum against No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday, Jan. 13 at noon ET. The contest will be nationally broadcasted by ESPN2. The Bulldogs will be looking for their first home win against the Volunteers since Jan. 15, 2020.

Five Fast Facts
• The Georgia bench contributed 40 of the team’s 76 points, led by Justin Hill’s 19, a new season best.
• The Bulldogs’ 10-point halftime lead, 34-24, marks the third time in the last three seasons Georgia’s built at least a 10-point halftime lead in conference play.
• Georgia’s win on Wednesday night marks its first win over Arkansas since its 99-89 victory on Feb. 29, 2020.
• The Bulldogs are 10-0 inside Stegeman Coliseum this season and 23-4 in Mike White’s two seasons at the helm of the program.
• Noah Thomasson scored 15 points, marking the sixth time in the last seven games he’s reach double-digit scoring and the 59th time in his career.

Key Quote
Head Coach Mike White: “Arkansas obviously is a really good program, and it’s a really good win for us. I do not like the way we’re always executing. Don’t always love our shot selection. But I like our level of confidence right now. You need it normally against the best, the best defensively in college basketball.”

Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Bulldogs by following UGA Men’s Basketball on social media on Facebook, Instagram and X @UGABasketball, and the web at GeorgiaDogs.com.

Team Notes

• The starting lineup was freshman Silas Demary Jr., senior Jabri Abdur-Rahim and graduates Noah Thomasson, RJ Sunahara and Russel Tchewa.
• The Bulldogs picked up their first win against Arkansas since the 2019-20 season.
• Georgia extends its win streak to 10 games, the longest under head coach Mike White.
• The Bulldogs have started 2-0 to open SEC play for the first time since the 2013-14 season.
• This 10-game win streak is tied for the fourth-most consecutive wins in program history, and is also the longest win streak since the 1947-48 season.
• Georgia held the Razorbacks to 35.7% from the free-throw line in the first half.
• Georgia led for 39:01 of the game.
• The 10-point halftime lead marks the third time in the last three seasons Georgia’s built at least a 10-point halftime lead in conference play.
• Georgia’s bench contributed 40 of the team’s 76 points.
• The Bulldogs held the Razorbacks to only 19 percent on 3-pointers made on the night.
• Georgia currently holds the fourth longest win streak in the nation as well as the most consecutive wins by a power-conference team with 10 in a row.

Individual notes

• Justin Hill has nine threes in the last three games.
• This is Jabri Abdur-Rahim’s 15th game this season with at least 3-point field goal.
• Jabri Abdur-Rahim has hit 33 threes in his career, this is his 15th consecutive game with a three-pointer made.
• Jabri Abdur-Rahim tied his career-high two assists and season-high 1 block.
• Justin Hill set a new season-high 19 points and six field goals made.

GEORGIA HEAD COACH MIKE WHITE

On never trailing in the game…
“Converted at the foul line, got a couple of stops, Demary huge shot, Jabri huge shot. We played with confidence when the game got close a couple times. I liked our offensive level again and our confidence. Especially, when were struggling to put together some stops there, Arkansas just kept coming back. Our mark down the stretch was really good, you know, hitting shots and getting to the rim and drawing fouls.”

On the team’s confidence and winning ten straight games…
“Arkansas obviously is a really good program. And it’s a really good win for us. I do not like the way we’re always executing. Don’t always love our shot selection. But I like our level of confidence right now. You need it normally against the best, the best defensively in college basketball.”

On overcoming a lot of fouls in the second half…
“It’s part of the game, you know, there’s gonna be other games like that as well. Just gathering, respond and move on, you know, move on to the next play, whether it’s offensively or defensively.”

On the team’s average shooting night…
“Pretty balanced. You know, I think we had another 40 off the bench. Our benches have been great with production not only offensively, but defensively.”

On the team’s creating points off turnovers…
“We did a good job of tracing the basketball and getting tips collapsing at times on some of their post passes and post drives. Thought our guys played really, really hard.”

On Justin’s performance throughout the season…
“Yeah, he’s a starter. He’s one of our best players. He and Jabri got to be in a conversation   on two of the most improved players in our league. Justin’s playing with a high level of confidence, of course. He was terrific tonight.”

On hosting Tennessee this early into SEC play…
“Getting any team in our league at home is better. When you travel in this league you hold your breath, and you hope to be competitive these days in this league, so we’re really fortunate that we played really well the other day. We wish they were all in the Steg, especially the way they showed up tonight for a late tip at 9:00. We’re really appreciative for our student section.”

On the upcoming game against Tennessee…
”Great AD. I have the upmost respect for what they’ve accomplished since he’s got there. They’re going to be extremely prepared and disciplined and mentally and physically tough. I think this current Tennessee team is just like a few that he’s had that has the chance to go to the final four. I really do. I think this Tennessee team is really really good, and we’ll have to play our best game of the year to have a chance down the stretch.”

#3 | Noah Thomasson | Gr. | G

On how the team finished the game, impact of the crowd…
“I think our crowd is like the sixth man on the floor. We really appreciate what they do. They make it loud and they make it rocking.”

On what Justin Hill brings to the team…
“He’s our sixth guard. In my opinion, he comes in and takes control of the game. He’s like a coach on the floor.”

On his thoughts on the team over the last 10 games…
“That we play hard. It started with Florida State when we were down 17. I mean the 10 game win-streak is big, but I think that game is what helps us see our culture and what we are going to hang our hats on.”

On Jabri Abdur-Rahim’s impact even on off nights…
“Jabri is the hardest worker. He’s in early in the mornings and it’s paying off for him. He had an off game tonight but I think Saturday he is going to pick it back up.”

#11 | Justin Hill | Sr. | G

On what the crowd was like tonight…
“It was amazing. Everybody came out for the first SEC home game. They really helped a lot and we are really grateful for them.”

On how confident the team is right now…
“Very confident. We expect to be in these type of games. We expect to win these types of games. We’re just going to keep playing basketball how we’ve been playing.”

On what the key is to carrying this win streak forward with another big game on Saturday…
“Just do what we’ve been doing. We’re going to be really focused during practice and be very detail oriented this week. We’ve just got to focus on our opponent.”