University of Georgia Athletics
Dog Notes: Gaines Carried The Load
November 20, 2015 | Men's Basketball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Kenny Gaines had a shooting night worth remembering Friday at Stegeman Coliseum. Heck, it was a night worth savoring and celebrating. And it came when the Georgia Bulldogs had to have it.
While the rest of the Dogs were struggling with their shots, to put it mildly, the senior guard was practically molten he was so hot. Gaines scored a career-high 35 points, making seven 3-pointers, and carried the Dogs, at least offensively, to a 63-52 win over Murray State.
"I knew we needed to score and so whenever I saw the opportunity, I just took a shot at it," Gaines said after the Bulldogs' first win of the season.
Gaines' previous career high was 27. He passed that on a 24-foot fadeaway 3 from the left wing with 3:39 remaining. That 3 put Georgia (1-1) up 51-50 and into the lead for good.
"He might have taken one bad shot," Georgia coach Mark Fox said of Gaines, who finished 10-for-18 from the field, 7-for-14 from 3-point range and 8-for-10 from the free-throw line.
While Gaines was scorching, the rest of Georgia's offense was battling frostbite. Gaines was the only player in double figures and the only other Dog to make more than one field-goal attempt was forward Yante Maten, who went 2-for-8 and scored 7 points.
As a team Georgia was 15-for-57 from the field. Take out Gaines' big night and Georgia was 7-for-39 and 1-for-8 from 3-point range.
Georgia led 29-27 at the half, with Gaines leading the way with 13 points. The Dogs led for most of the second half despite their poor shooting, thanks to Gaines' points and some quality Georgia defense and rebounding.
Murray State took a 50-48 lead with 4:11 to play on a Bryce Jones three-point play. Not much later, Gaines hit the big 3 from the left wing. Forty seconds after that, he hit another one.
After a Jones layup made it 54-52 with 2:43 to play, Gaines came off a screen at the top of the key and hit an off-balance 3 while floating a bit to his left. The ball rattled around a bit before dropping through to make it 57-52 with 2:19 remaining. He said that was his favorite one of the night.
"It looked like it was coming up but it went back in," he said.
Gaines added a free throw with 1:35 to play and his final impact play came at the other end, a dive for a defensive rebound and a timeout call with 56.8 seconds left.
"That's just something we practice, trying to get the 50-50 balls," he said. "I knew it was critical, so I just wanted to make the right play."
It was a night of smart, right plays, said Fox, who credited Gaines with playing "within himself." And it came after a frustrating season opener in which Gaines was held to 12 points and 16 minutes of action because of fouls in Georgia's 92-90 overtime loss to Chattanooga last Friday.
"Obviously when he has the hot hand, he has the green light," Fox said. "He's been a very good player for us and he just felt so bad about the first game, because when you foul out in just 16 minutes and you can't really help your team, he felt awful."
When Shots Aren't Falling
While the Bulldogs that played and weren't named Gaines had a hard time shooting, they contributed to the win in other ways. Guard J.J. Frazier was 1-for-11 from the floor, but he made some critical free throws in the final minute to seal the win.
Maten played solid defense inside and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
"When you're offensive isn't working, and offense will come and go, you've got to make sure your defense is good," he said.
Forwards Houston Kessler and Mike Edwards both had eight rebounds and forward Kenny Paul Geno added seven. As a team Georgia held the Racers to 30.4 percent shooting and outrebounded them 47-37.
"I thought Kenny Paul Geno made a huge impact on the game rebounding the ball," Fox said. "We had a lot of guys play well."
Making Adjustments
Georgia once again was shorthanded, playing without 6-4 junior guard Juwan Parker (Achilles) and 6-8 freshman forward Derek Ogbeide (shoulder), who missed the opener as well. Fox said having the week between the Chattanooga game and playing the Racers was a big help.
Georgia had little time to adjust to not having either player before opening its season, but not before their second game.
"The small lineup that we've worked on for six weeks included Juwan Parker, and when we had to play small in the first game, we had to move too many people around and we just weren't a good team," he said. "Our rotations were a mess and so we went back and played kind of conventional and played two bigs most of the game and kind of simplified what we ran.
"They packed it in, so Yante didn't get a lot of great looks. But when you pack it in, there's going to be some open 3s."
And Gaines hit them.
The Bulldogs are back in action Wednesday when they host High Point.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
