Bulldogs top Fighting Irish, 69-48

ATHENS, Ga. — The Georgia Bulldogs (8-1) defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4-5), 69-48, on Tuesday night at the Stegeman Coliseum. Three scorers reached double figures on the night led by freshman Asa Newell’s 20-point double-double paired with 11 rebounds.

Fast Facts
• After Newell’s 20-point effort, graduate guard Dakota Leffew followed with 16 points while sophomore guard Silas Demary Jr. finished with 11 points.
• Asa Newell’s double-double marked his second of the season while reaching double-digit scoring in eight of nine games played this season.
• Silas Demary Jr. posted a career-high five steals on the night, with all coming in the first half.
• Mike White’s team held the Fighting Irish to 21 percent from 3-point shooting, marking the fifth time this season the Bulldogs have held an opponent to under 30 percent from the perimeter.
• Tyrin Lawrence set a new career high with seven assists, beating his previous best of five matched earlier this season on Nov. 24 against St. John’s.
• Georgia finished tonight’s game with only five turnovers, marking the first time the Bulldogs have recorded five or fewer turnovers since March 7, 2018 in the SEC Tournament first round against Vanderbilt.

Key Quote
“Really defended at a high level,” head coach Mike White said. “Love how we shared it – 19 assists to five turnovers – two games in a row where we’ve completely flip-flopped our turnover-assist ratio as it had been up until that point. So, we’re getting better in that category. Defended the three at a really high rate. I like the looks we got early, so we weren’t rattled there. I like the way we moved it. Probably a couple quick ones, although they were pretty open, but Notre Dame does a great job of forcing you to shoot jump shots and packing the paint. They’re incredibly disciplined and then they made it interesting. We got off to a really good start early second half and they went on a run there, it seems like, probably three or four minutes into the second half until probably about the 10-minute mark. It was pretty even there. And then we finished really strong.”

Up Next
The Bulldogs will return to Atlanta where they will face Grand Canyon at the 2024 Holiday Hoopsgiving on Saturday, Dec. 14 with tipoff set at 6 p.m. ET at State Farm Arena. The game will be televised on SEC Network.

POST-GAME NOTES

• Tonight’s game marks the fifth meeting between the Bulldogs and Fighting Irish on the hardwood with Georgia now holding a 3-2 lead.
• Starting Streak – The Bulldogs rolled out the same starting lineup of Cain, Demary Jr., Lawrence, Godfrey and Newell for the ninth straight contest.
• Perimeter Pressure – Georgia held the Notre Dame to 21-percent shooting behind the arc; fifth time this year opponents have gone 30-percent or less.
• Tight on Turnovers – The Bulldogs only gave up five turnovers – a season best and the first time since the 2018 SEC tournament against Vanderbilt.
• Doubling Up – Asa Newell earned his second career double-double finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
• Sneaky Steals – Demary Jr. grabbed five steals – all in the first half – which is a career-high.
• Power in the Paint – Georgia outrebounded the visiting Fighting Irish 40-27, the third largest margin of the season and the second straight game that the Bulldogs have held opponents to 30 or less boards. Interestingly, Georgia has outrebounded every opponent this season.

POST-GAME QUOTES

Georgia Head Coach Mike White

On the win… 
“Really defended it at a high level. Love how we shared it. 19 assists to five turnovers, two games in a row where we’ve completely flip-flopped our turnover-assist ratio as it had been up until that point. So we’re getting better in that category. Defended the three at a really high rate. I like the looks we got early, so we weren’t rattled there. I like the way we moved it. Probably a couple quick ones, although they were pretty open, but Notre Dame does a great job of forcing you to shoot jump shots and packing the paint. They’re incredibly disciplined, and then they made it interesting. We got off to a really good start early second half, and they went on a run ther it seemed like, probably three or four minutes into the second half until probably about the ten-minute mark. It was pretty even there. Then, we finished really strong. Those guys, they’ve got a good team. They share it, they shoot it, they spray it from three, and the key to the game was defending those threes. For them to go four of 19 gave us a great shot. We’ve got to shoot it better, obviously, too, but to hold those guys to 48 points is, man, that’s easier said than done. I was going to say, the only team that was even close to that with them was Houston held them to 56. Yeah, and Houston’s the third-best defense in the country according to the computers right now and one of the best defensive programs. Probably top five over the last few years, so we’re doing some good things. It wasn’t perfect. But, man, very, very proud of the effort.”

On Georgia’s success rebounding… 
“We ended up getting 14 offensive rebounds. We only had a few at halftime. Some of that was defending an offense that had five shooters out there, or a driver at the four in Tae Davis. So, they were a little bit smaller there, but the first probably 30 minutes of the game they played bigger with Kebba Njie in, and Nikita Konstantynovskyi. Those guys played with a ton of physicality. I thought they did a really good job in the first half of blocking us out.”

On what he hopes to see from his team in the next two games… 
“He [Silas Demary Jr.] had five steals in the first half and probably tipped another three or four balls that he didn’t get credit for to create at least a little bit of off-rhythm or discomfort for Notre Dame’s offense. Fought through screens, guarded multiple guys. Heck, we had him on their four-man, a lot. He’s just a versatile defender, and he’s about the right stuff. He’s maturing, and he’s developing into a real winning leader. Big, strong kid. I mean, that’s the thing. The way he goes inside and sticks his nose right in with those. I don’t care. You don’t care how big they are. He had an offensive rebound put-back on the baseline, which was a huge basket for us. This year, our guards, with our size and our interchangeability, those guys were allowing to get on the offensive glass a little bit more. It’s part of our floor balance and offensive rebounding system that we’ve got in, and that was huge. Then, probably a few minutes after that, late in the game on that left baseline right in front of our bench, he had another huge offensive rebound, threw a lot of contact, and gave it off to Asa [Newell], who scored it, or got fouled rather. But, he made some winning plays for sure.”

On the upcoming game against Grand Canyon…
“We’ve got a really high-level mid-major opponent, an opponent that we scheduled on purpose in hopes of it being a potential quad one or quad two in Grand Canyon coached by Bryce Drew. They’ve got a lot of talent. They just beat Stanford, and we’ve got them in Atlanta. It’ll be a fun environment. But between exams and finishing up strong academically, getting rest, healing, we’ll be preparing for Grand Canyon.”

#1 Dakota Leffew | Gr. Guard

On his impact off the bench… 
“It feels good coming off the bench and being an instant offense and picking up on what we need.”

On the fans and the environment… 
“I feel like it was good. That would make them want to come to more games and things like that, so I feel like we’re doing what we’re supposed to do. We draw more attention and maybe sell out next time.”

On De’Shayne Montgomery…
“He’s going to bring a lot of energy, for sure. He’s the energy guy of our team. He brings it every day in practice, so I’m excited to have him back.”

#14 Asa Newell | Fr. Forward

On Silas Demary Jr.’s defensive performance…
“Silas is our leader. He was talking to us and getting us in our huddles. Having a leader like that who brings it on both sides of the floor just impacts us all.”

On the fans and the environment…
“It’s amazing showing the fans what we can do. Having a really good ACC team come in and have the fans showing us love is just a really good feeling.”