University of Georgia Athletics
No. 16 Lady Bulldogs Top No. 14 Vanderbilt 83-71
January 18, 2007 | Women's Basketball
With her 16 point-performance, Janese Hardrick moved into the No. 26 position among Lady Dog scoring leaders with a career total of 1,100 points. Much of Hardrick’s efforts shined through in the second half where she scored 15 points, collected four rebounds and made two steals. She also equaled her career-high with eight rebounds.
“I think the person that sparked us the most in the second half was Hardrick,” said head coach Andy Landers. "She had at least six terrific plays defensively. She came out with the ball a number of times and just kept making plays that led to points in transition.”
Leading all scorers in the contest was Ashley Houts who tallied a career-high 21 points. She only shot 5-of-13 from the floor, but was key from the charity stripe connecting on 10-of-13 free throws. Despite jumping out on a quick 6-0 run, the Lady Dogs soon found themselves down by three points after Vanderbilt hit a trio of three-point shots on consecutive possessions beginning at 17:05. Georgia, then, went on a three-point scoring spree of its own hitting four shots from beyond the arc in just over two minutes. Back-to-back steals resulting in layups for the Lady Dogs gave the home team a 23-19 advantage with 7:16 left to play in the first half. Following a two-pointer from Vanderbilt’s Carla Thomas, both squads went scoreless for 3:08 until Angel Robinson hit a pair of free throws to put Georgia up 25-21.
The Commodores’ Caroline Williams connected on three treys coming on simultaneous possessions to go on a 9-0 run and take the 30-25 lead at 1:47. Georgia would score a quick four points to find itself down one point at the half with the score at 30-29. For the half both teams shot well from long-range with the Lady Dogs hitting 6-of-15 from outside the perimeter while Vanderbilt went 6-for-14. The score remained close in much of the opening minutes of the second stanza until Georgia began pulling away at the 12:06 mark off a layup and made free throw from Megan Darrah. The Lady Dogs would take their largest lead of the game, and largest for either team, just minutes later when Christy Marshall hit a layup to give Georgia a 14-point edge at 60-46.
Free throws were huge for the Lady Dogs late in the contest as they shot 29-of-38 from the charity stripe in the second. Both Georgia’s made total of 32 free throws for the game and attempts total of 42 ranks among the top 10 in Lady Dog annals with the 32 made holding No. 8 and the 42 attempted tying the No. 10 mark. The closest the Commodores would come to closing in on Georgia for the duration of the contest was at 2:17 when the lead was cut down to seven.
Next up, the Lady Dogs will take part in the Russell Athletic Shootout this Sunday, where they will play Florida State. Tipoff is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. (ET) at the Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Ga.
