ATHENS, Ga. – Four Bulldogs scored 13 points apiece to lead Georgia (3-0) in an 80-72 win over Florida Gulf Coast (1-2) at Stegeman Coliseum on Monday night.
FIVE FAST FACTS
• Blue Cain, Kanon Catchings, Marcus “Smurf” Millender and Kareem Stagg all scored 13 points for Georgia.
• The contest featured a see-saw second half. Georgia led by three points at the intermission before opening the second stanza on a 19-2 run to go up 63-43. The margin bulged to 23 points before FGCU went on a 23-4 surge to pull within 72-68 with 6:12 remaining. An Andrew Osasuyi stickback ignited an 8-0 effort by Georgia to regain a 12-point lead.
• Georgia extended its non-conference winning streak at Stegeman Coliseum to 39 games, the seventh-longest stretch of success in the nation.
• With 13 points, Cain ascended from No. 40 to No. 38 among Georgia’s career scoring leaders. Cain now has 1,071 points, just two shy of No. 37 Terrance Woodbury and eight away from No. 36 Jumaine Jones.
• Monday’s game was the first-ever meeting between the Bulldogs and the Eagles. FGCU is the only first-time opponent on Georgia’s 2026-27 regular-season schedule.
KEY QUOTES
Georgia Head Coach Mike White
On what this win says about Georgia as a program…
“This is the product of – or something that simulates – what we think we can be. It did not finish the way we wanted to finish, but our mantra in this program is growth every single day. We have got to get better tomorrow, and we have got to learn from this, but I know we only won by eight. We got better tonight because we showed good glimpses, and I think they have a chance to be at the top of their league. The top two, three, or four? Who knows.”
On what he prepared for coming into tonight’s match…
“A good friend of mine, Jordan Mincy, came in here. He is the head coach at Jacksonville University, and he was really fond of this particular Florida Gulf Coast team. He said, ‘Mike, you’ve got your hands full with these guys.’ But they scored and went on an 18-3 run there, which I think was over a three-minute span. Outside of that the other 17 minutes of the second half, we held them to 13 points. We finally saw what we can be defensively. Offensively, we had our moments too. We just have got to put more of it together. We showed glimpses of a good team, though.”
On the competitiveness of the second half…
“The way we came out of the second half was unbelievable. That is the best this team’s played in a practice or in a game, and our bench showed everyone in the arena how much they appreciated their teammates out there. They had two points in the first eight minutes of the second half and credit Kanon Catchings. That is the best he has played since last February. He has got to learn how to do that for 40 minutes, and he is going to be a really good player.”
Kanon Catchings | #6 | Forward
On momentum switch from first to second half…
“I feel like in games like this when the first half doesn’t go how you expected or wanted it to go, it kind of lights a fire under you that you must use to continue.”
On defense in the second half…
“It’s very important. Coach is always talking about how important defense is, and honestly, you can’t win in the SEC without playing great defense. I feel like it’s something we need to build off of for sure.”
Smurf Millender | #4 | Guard
On the mood in the locker room at the half…
“As soon as the half ended … we sprinted in and started talking to each other, just trying to get on the same page and get each other to do what we wanted to do. On the defensive end, we were reminding each other that they were shooting it, so we had to close out on shooters, rebound the ball, and be in each other’s gaps. That was the message to us.”
On the road game at North Carolina…
“It’s a huge step for the program. Like Kanon [Catchings] said, I feel like we have the team that’s capable of going on any road game and coming out with a victory.”
UP NEXT
Georgia will play its first road game of the season on Friday when the Bulldogs venture to Chapel Hill to play North Carolina at 7:00 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Georgia will return home next Monday to host Jacksonville at Stegeman Coliseum at 7:00 p.m. Information on tickets for Georgia Basketball – single-game, mini packages and neutral site games – can be found here.