ATHENS, Ga. – The Georgia Bulldogs opened their 2026-27 season with a 78-62 victory over North Carolina Central on Monday night at Stegeman Coliseum.
FIVE FAST FACTS
• Kanon Catchings paced Georgia on the offensive end with 16 points, followed by 15 from Blue Cain and 12 from Marcus “Smurf” Millender.
• After leading 23-19 with 9:37 left in the first half, Georgia used a 13-0 over the next 4:45 to build a 36-19 lead. Five different Bulldogs scored in the run – Donovan Williams Jr., James Scott, Catchings, Smurf Millender and Andrew Osasuyi. Georgia led by double figures for all but 10 seconds of the rest of the game.
• With 15 points, Cain ascended from No. 43 to No. 40 among Georgia’s career scoring leaders. The senior from Knoxville, Tenn., now has 1,038 points for the Bulldogs, leaving him 26 shy of No. 39 Rashad Wright.
• Georgia extended its home winning streak against non-conference competition to 37 games, which dates back to head coach Mike White’s arrival in 2022. That is currently the seventh longest non-conference home winning streak in the country.
• The Bulldogs improved to 3-0 all-time against N.C. Central.
KEY QUOTES
Georgia Head Coach Mike White
On N.C. Central keeping the game close……
“I told (N.C. Central HC) LaVelle (Moton) after the game, he’s got one returner and played that well against this team. I think we’re good. I think we’ve got a chance to have a really good year, and they came in here and made it very interesting. (They) cut it to 10 late. I’m very surprised. Honestly, I thought we’d play a lot better than that. We just had a conversation with the guys about how much better we have got to be and where our focus has got to be. We didn’t shoot it well. We didn’t execute well. They were very disruptive obviously. We’ve got to give them a lot of credit. I do think we defensive rebounded better than we have this entire season in practice and in exhibition games, but a lot is left to be desired offensively with our execution and defensively with our effort and press. I just thought we coached effort a lot tonight, and I didn’t expect to do that with these guys.”
On coaching effort…
“I thought they played harder than us. They just did. They came into our arena and played harder than we did for 40 minutes. I’m just being dead honest with you like I always have. Their pressure was more effective on us than ours was on them. Now did we fly around and block some shots and get some back tips and stuff? Yeah, because we’re fast, and we’re long, and we’re athletic, and we played really hard in spurts. I thought a couple of our young kids like Donovan Williams (Jr.), Andrew Osasuyi, and Mading Kuany played really hard. James Scott played pretty hard. We have got to have our bests better than that if we’re going to get a higher seed and give ourselves more of a chance to advance. If we want our metrics or analytics to be pretty, we didn’t help ourselves tonight.”
On missing Kareem Stagg…
“That’s a factor. He gives us a little bit of swag. That physicality also, complemented by the skill level of his switchability defensively, and he’s really been locked in. He’s been one of our high motor guys all fall. So, we hope we get him healthy soon.”
Blue Cain| #0 | Guard
On how Georgia played as a team tonight…
“I thought we played pretty bad. I thought we had a lot of disconnection. A lot of things to improve on, but it’s better learning those lessons through a win. So, I’m grateful that we got the win, but we have got a lot to improve on.”
On prepping for the next game against Presbyterian…
“Excited to get better. Presbyterian’s a good team, but we jump right into it. We’ve got a lot to get better at.”
Kanon Catchings | #6 | Forward
On getting good looks at 3-point shooting…
“I would say a little bit of good looks, a little bit of some four shots, but we definitely are better than 6 for 26 for sure.”
On his impressions of Mading Kuany…
“He’s definitely a good player for sure. He does things I definitely didn’t do as a freshman. Just the way that he guards. He plays hard, but he’s definitely going to be a great player. He’s a great player to have on your team, and somebody that you always want on your team.”
UP NEXT
Georgia will continue its three-game, eight-day homestand to open the season on Friday night when the Bulldogs host Presbyterian. In addition, Florida Gulf Coast will visit Stegeman Coliseum next Monday. Both games will tipoff at 7:00 p.m. Information on tickets for Georgia Basketball – single-game, mini packages and neutral site games – can be found here.