Georgia defeats LSU on the road, 83-71

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Georgia Bulldogs (17-6, 5-5) rolled past the LSU Tigers (14-9, 2-8), 83-71, Saturday evening before 7,270 spectators at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. Sophomore Kanon Catchings was the Bulldogs’ leading scorer with 23 points, including five 3-pointers, tying his career high in both categories.

FAST FACTS
• Despite LSU still owning a 71-50 advantage in the all-time series, tonight’s game marked Georgia’s first win in Baton Rouge in eight years.
• Georgia finished with four players in the double digits. Alongside Catchings, Jeremiah Wilkinson, Somto Cyril, and Blue Cain added 18, 12, and 10 points, respectively
• After trailing behind LSU for the majority of the first half, namely a 15-point deficit at the 9:50 mark, a 7-0 run gave Georgia its first lead of the night right before halftime.
• With 4:15 left in the game, a 3-point jumper off a Tiger turnover caused by Catchings gave the Bulldogs a 17-point lead and sealed the victory.
• Georgia outscored LSU in bench points, 23-14. Additionally, Georgia led the Tigers in assists (16-12), steals (8-7) and rebounds (36-34).

KEY QUOTES

Georgia Head Coach Mike White

On overcoming the difficult start…
“I thought we were pretty sharp for 40 minutes defensively. They overcame pretty good defense early and made some shots. We missed a couple of block-outs. They drew a couple fouls there early. We got down – we just had some empty possessions offensively. But I liked our looks early. I think after the first couple media timeouts, we charted we had six ‘A’ shots and two ‘C’ shots, so our shot selection early was pretty good. They were just playing better offense than we were. But I thought we were close defensively and then we settled in and probably played as good of a 30 minutes collectively, defensively, as we’ve played all year. And that’s what it takes to win on the road in this league. Proud of the effort. A lot of carryover from practice. These guys worked hard and their attention to detail was pretty good against an LSU team that’s capable of beating anyone in our league. This was a big win for us.”

On breaking the three-game losing streak…
“We gained some confidence today because we had respect for this program and how they execute. They’re coming off a game at South Carolina where they executed at a very high level, offensively and defensively, and just had their way offensively against a high-level defensive program in South Carolina. We were locked in this week in preparation. That doesn’t always mean there’s carryover. There was in this one, especially defensively in those last 30 minutes. We needed to get a W. That three-game skid wasn’t fun, but that’s life in the SEC these days. As I mentioned earlier this week, LSU could’ve been sitting here easily with two or three more SEC wins, and they’ll continue to be super competitive.”

UP NEXT
Georgia returns home to welcome the Florida Gators to Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday, February 11 at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Secure your tickets for future Bulldog home games here.