Bulldogs defeat S.C. State, 79-72

ATHENS, Ga. — The Georgia Bulldogs (12-1) defeated the South Carolina State Bulldogs (6-9), 79-72, on Sunday afternoon at Stegeman Coliseum. Six scorers reached double figures led by graduate guard Tyrin Lawrence and junior forward RJ Godfrey’s 14 points, respectively.

• After Lawrence and Godfrey’s 14-point efforts, graduate guard Dakota Leffew and freshman forward Asa Newell followed with 12 points each while sophomore guard Silas Demary Jr. posted 11 points and sophomore guard De’Shayne Montgomery finished with 10.

• With the victory, the Bulldogs’ 12-1 start matches its best start to a season in 94 years dating back to the 1930-31 season.

• De’Shayne Montgomery notched four steals on the day, marking a new season high while sitting one shy of his career-high of five (posted twice as a member of Mount St. Mary’s against Howard and Manhattan on Nov. 25 and Dec. 1, 2023).

• Despite a season-low 24 first-half points, Georgia responded with 55 points after the intermission, marking the most points scored in a second half this season.

• The win extends the Bulldogs’ overall winning streak to seven games, improving to 11 consecutive wins at Stegeman Coliseum as well as 27 games in home non-conference matchups in the Mike White era.

“My goodness, as we talked about this morning, this team is really physical,” head coach Mike White said. “They play really hard. There were going to be a lot of fouls called in the game. We knew that. There were going to be a lot of free throws shot. They were going to change defenses and extend their defenses throughout the game in different ways. And boy, it’s a different look than we’ll see all year, it really is. And they played really well in the first 20 until the buzzer. I mean, we were down 17 at half. And honestly, I didn’t think we came out with the wrong approach – we had a really good shoot around and we had a really good practice yesterday. Our guys were fired up to tip it up and play in front of a big crowd – I want to say our biggest crowd this year. So we’re appreciative. The crowd was a big factor there throughout the second half. We didn’t give our crowd a lot to cheer for in the first 20. They had us on our heels offensively, and they hit a couple contested threes with just a little bit of miscommunication, and their confidence grew and they finished the latter part of the first half in a big, big way. Our culture came through, it did.”

The Bulldogs will open Southeastern Conference action on the road where they will face No. 16 Ole Miss on Saturday, Jan. 4 with tipoff set at 12 p.m. ET at The Pavilion at Ole Miss. The game will be televised on SEC Network.