University of Georgia Athletics
University of Georgia
Kentucky
Lady Bulldogs Rally Falls Short At Kentucky
February 01, 2015 | Women's Basketball
A back and forth game between Georgia and Kentucky went down to the wire. Georgia held the lead for most of the second half and battled to the end despite falling short late.
Feb. 1, 2015
LEXINGTON, Ky. --- Career-high scoring outputs by Tiaria Griffin and Marjorie Butler were not enough to lead No. 21 Georgia past No. 10 Kentucky on Sunday. The Wildcats secured an 80-72 victory at Memorial Coliseum.
The Lady Bulldogs rallied from a 13-point, first-half deficit to lead by four with 5:42 left but were outscored 10-0 in the final 1:37.
Griffin scored a game-high 23 points, while Butler added 13 for Georgia (17-5, 5-4 SEC). Krista Donald also reached double digits with 14 points, all in the second half.
Jennifer O'Neill led four Kentucky (17-5, 6-3 SEC) players in double digits.
"I thought where they did the most damage was on the offensive boards," head coach Andy Landers said. "They killed us there. Our guards have got the rebound the basketball for us to be successful and today we got hammered by both guards and forwards. Their guards were chasing down balls and rebounding them before they went out of bounds while we watched. There were some turnovers that were huge, but the offensive rebounds killed us."
Kentucky outrebounded the Lady Bulldogs 43-36 and had 19 offensive rebounds to Georgia's 23 on that end of the floor. One-fourth of the Wildcats' points in the game were off of second-chance opportunities.
The game eventually finished with four ties and six lead changes, after a first half that produced very little drama.
The Wildcats started quickly and jumped out to a 10-2 lead just over three minutes into the game.
Back-to-back layups by Merritt Hempe and Erika Ford cut it to 17-13 with 12:23 in half but the rally stalled there. Georgia failed on six chances to pull closer - three missed shots and three turnovers - before a 13-0 Kentucky surge covering 4:16 that put the Wildcats up 30-13.
After going scoreless for 7:18, the Lady Bulldogs scored seven points in 19 seconds to close the gap to 30-20. Mackenzie Engram opened the surge with a stickback and foul. After a missed free throw bounded out of play off Kentucky, Engram hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and Griffin converted a driving layup.
Georgia eventually pulled within five points 36-31 with 40 ticks on the clock, but Bria Goss canned a jumper to extend the margin back to seven at the break.
The Lady Bulldogs fell behind by 12 points early in the second stanza before consecutive 3-pointers by Griffin in a span of just 39 seconds cut that margin in half.
Georgia pulled within two points four times before finally taking the lead on another Griffin 3-pointer that made it 59-58 with 8:56 left. An old-fashioned 3-point play by Donald pushed Georgia ahead by four, but Kentucky rallied to go back up by four with just under six minutes remaining.
Georgia last led 72-70 following a Butler jumper with 2:50 left. The score remained the same until a Jennifer O'Neill 3-pointer put the Wildcats up for good, 73-72, at the 1:37 mark.
The Lady Bulldogs will return to Stegeman Coliseum on Thursday to host top-ranked South Carolina at 7 p.m.
The first 250 UGA students in attendance at the game will receive Georgia "beanie" hats, the first 100 students will receive free pizza and 50 random students will receive gift cards to Chipotle. The game also will air on the SEC Network and first
Single-game reserved seat tickets for Lady Bulldog games are $5 for adults and $3 for children. UGA students, faculty and staff are admitted to all Lady Bulldog games free of charge with a valid UGA Card. Faculty and staff should pick up tickets at the Coliseum box office. Students are admitted to the arena via the entrance to the left of the box office by showing their UGA Card.
Single-game tickets are on sale via georgiadogs.com, by calling 877-542-1231 or in person at the UGA Ticket Office in the Butts-Mehre Heritage Hall from 8:30-4:30 on weekdays. In addition, single-game tickets go on sale at the Stegeman Coliseum box office (closest to Sanford Drive) beginning 60 minutes before tip-off of every home game.
