Demary Jr.’s 21 points leads Bulldogs past No. 3 Florida, 88-83

ATHENS, Ga. — The Georgia Bulldogs (17-11, 5-10 SEC) knocked off the No. 3 Florida Gators (24-4, 11-4 SEC), 88-83, on Tuesday evening at Stegeman Coliseum. Five scorers reached double figures headlined by sophomore guard Silas Demary Jr.’s 21 points on the night.

Fast Facts

• After Demary Jr.’s 21 point-performance, freshman forward Asa Newell followed with 15 points while graduate guard Tyrin Lawrence finished with 14 points, sophomore guard Blue Cain with 12 and junior forward RJ Godfrey with 10.
• The win is Georgia’s first over a top-3 ranked opponent since defeating No. 3 Georgia Tech in double-overtime, 83-80, on Jan. 3, 2004. The win is also the highest ranked victory in the Mike White era.
• The win marks Georgia’s third ranked victory of the season and second in the top-10 (82-69 win over No. 6 Kentucky on Jan. 7).
• Demary Jr. posted his second 20+ point outing of the season and the third of his career, averaging 19.4 points-per-game in his last five games.
• Demary Jr. matched his career high in 3-pointers made in a game with four on the evening while notching his sixth-consecutive outing with multiple triples made.
• Junior forward Justin Abson produced a career night as he notched a career-high five assists and matched his personal-best three steals on the night.

Key Quote
“Big win, crazy game,” head coach Mike White said. “Credit to Florida was incredible with their comeback. They hit huge shots and took the lead and our response down the stretch was phenomenal. Florida’s really, really good. It was a big win for us.”

Up Next
The Bulldogs will make their second trip to the Lone Star State in three weeks when it faces Texas on Saturday, March 1 with tipoff set at 8 p.m. ET at the Moody Center. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

POST-GAME NOTES

• With tonight’s result, Georgia narrows the all-time series to 126-106 in favor of Florida but improves to 64-45 in Athens against the Gators.

• Record Win – This marks the highest ranked win for the Bulldogs under Mike White and the first top three win since Georgia Tech in 2004.

• Super Silas – In Demary Jr.’s last five games, the guard has averaged 19.4 points per game – the highest of any five-game span in his Georgia career.

• Amazing Abson – Justin Abson led the team in assists (5), blocks (2) and steals (3) in the win. His assist and steal mark are both season highs with the former being a career high.

• Freshman Phenom – Freshman Asa Newell passed Kentavious Caldwell-Pope for the sixth-most points by a Georgia freshman in a season. More, Newell passes Charles Claxton for ninth-most rebounds by a Bulldog freshman in a season.

• Big Off The Bench – Georgia’s bench outscored the Gator bench, 27-18. This marks the 15th time this season the Bulldog bench has prevailed.

POST-GAME QUOTES

Georgia Head Coach Mike White

Opening Statement
“Big win, crazy game. Credit to Florida was incredible with their comeback. They hit huge shots and took the lead and our response down the stretch was phenomenal. Florida’s really, really good. It was a big win for us.”

On the locker room following the win…
“ I didn’t get a chance to get in the locker room before. The team attacked me in the coach’s locker room with about 100 water bottles. So, a change into this hoodie, a little more comfortable now. Pants are still wet, a little cold, ready to get home to the pizza.

On Blue Cain…
“It’s just pretty unique that you’re sitting there for a while on the bench watching the game and to go right back in the game and sprint into a huge shot like that. It’s just unique. He was ready though, and I’m not sure this time last year as a true freshman, he understood that mentality, maybe I’m wrong, but he just continues to grow as a sophomore and just being locked in and engaged in the game is some winning stuff. He goes in and I was worried he was a little stiff, because there was some conversation amongst our staff, ‘do we put Blue in, do we not put Blue in?’ You think about a guy having to guard those guards who’s been sitting down for a while and can he help us offensively and again, is he stiff? Boy, he took advantage, hit a huge shot. Great screen, great pass.”

On the halftime message…
“Same thing we say every game, honestly. We could have been, we were down 17 early in the game. Excuse me, early this season in all the games that we found a way to win. Same deal, it’s about the first round of the second half. It’s about the first possession. How do you win the first round of the second half, round six? You have to get an A shot, have to get a stop, got to stay connected. Adversity’s coming, haven’t accomplished anything. Same stuff, it’s 40 minutes. We’re saying the same stuff to our respective teams in different ways, and that’s the way we say it to our guys. Our guys were pretty calm, pretty open to some of the film that we showed, some of the things we needed to do a little bit better. I thought defensively, they were really sharp early second half, and we didn’t have that same downhill level of confidence and ball movement. We played a little bit tentative there early second half offensively. Not sure that we got to where we really wanted to play as aggressive in the second half as we did in the first, and some of that is watching the ball go in against your defense, they stepped up and made some big shots.”

On the performances after the bye week…
“The last two games, we’ve played really hard, and we played better as well. Just obviously, generally speaking, offensively and defensively, we just played a little bit better. We’ve changed a couple things in terms of how we’re playing. I think the rest helps, again, especially this time of year. We’ve shortened up practice a little bit. How big of a factor is that? I don’t know. Probably more than anything, guys are just playing well. Silas [Demary Jr.] is playing well. Dylan’s [James] emerged and doing some really good things for us. Blue’s [Cain] playing more confidently. Asa [Newell] has had a really strong year, continues to do what he does. We’re playing a couple different guys, you can read between the lines there. Playing a little bit differently with our roster and our rotations. But there’s some other guys, there’s a couple that didn’t play tonight. Who knows? Their number might be called in the next one or the following one. But as long as everybody’s pulling for each other, we’re good.”

#0 | Blue Cain | So. | Guard

On his three-pointer to take the lead…
“Yeah, I mean, Coach called the play. I knew what the play was. Silas [Demary Jr.] did a great job of drawing two defenders all night and when he drew two, I knew that I would be open, and then it felt good coming out of my hands, but I was just happy it went in.”

On where his go-ahead three-pointer ranks in his all-time shot locker…
“I’ll probably say, I don’t know if it’s the biggest, but I’ll probably say it’s one of my favorites.”

#7 | Tyrin Lawrence | Gr. | Guard

On returning to action after injury…
“I kind of knew yesterday at practice. We were just trying to get a gauge of how that would go. It went well yesterday and a lot of credit to Yoshi [Saito] and Coach [Collin] Crane. I’m just glad to be back”

On the playing in the closing minutes…
“It felt great, man, just watching from the sideline. You know, I want to get in and help them as much as I can. I’m just glad to be back where I can actually help them instead of trying to coach them. I’m not a coach.”

#14 | Asa Newell | Fr. | Forward

On the mindset late in the second half…
“I would never really say it’s, ‘Here we go again.’ I feel like we’ve been getting some tough breaks this year, but I feel like credit to our team. We’ve just been ultra-connected throughout the whole year. So, I mean, we just stayed together like always and luckily we were able to come out with a win.”

On his preparation for the game…
“Yeah, I mean, it’s just confidence. A lot of prayer, a lot of preparation with Jesus. I think we just had a fantastic game plan. Coach White and the staff did a fantastic job, and we went out there and executed.”

Florida Head Coach Todd Golden

Opening Statement
“Disappointing loss, credit to Georgia. I thought they played great in the first half and stepped up to the moment in a game they needed and played that way for the first 20 minutes. We just put ourselves in too big of a hole. Obviously getting down by 26 points 13 minutes into the game is not ideal when you’re trying to win a basketball game. But I am really proud of our guys. In that type of adverse situation, we showed a lot of heart, showed a lot of grit. To be able to get back to the point where we had a lead with one minute to go in this game is pretty incredible. We weren’t able to make enough plays down the stretch. We needed one more stop and we couldn’t get it. Fell a little short.”

On first half offensive struggles…
“I thought we got caught up in the moment early. Probably didn’t play with enough poise offensively during Georgia’s offensive output. Got ourselves into some positions where we weren’t running very good offense. They have good rim protection, they’re long, athletic, they give you some problems around the rim. We just didn’t execute well enough. We didn’t get our two man games low enough. There were a lot of things we could have done better.”

On the atmosphere in Stegeman Coliseum…
“The crowd was great. They showed up. They did a good job. It’s something that we’re a little used to, honestly, going on the road this year. Playing in front of good crowds. But they had a good crowd tonight for sure.”