University of Georgia Athletics
A Special Scene At Stegeman
March 04, 2015 | Men's Basketball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
ATHENS, Ga. -- Georgia coach Mark Fox didn't want to hear anything about moral victories following the Bulldogs' 72-64 loss to top-ranked and undefeated Kentucky on Tuesday.
"I don't believe in moral victories," he said loudly and clearly.
Tuesday's close loss to the Wildcats (30-0, 17-0 SEC) might not have been a win for this UGA team -- the Bulldogs (19-10, 10-7 SEC) led 56-47 with 9:12 remaining before Kentucky surged and Georgia struggled -- but it was a meaningful night for a program clearly on the rise.
A sellout crowd of 10,523 packed into Stegeman Coliseum and breathed fire and brimstone into the old girl. From the opening tip -- well before it, in fact -- there was tremendous energy and atmosphere. And when Yante Maten scored on a tip-in to give the Bulldogs that nine-point lead midway through the second half, there was pandemonium.
"We had a great crowd and our crowd rolled their sleeves up and they saddled up right with us and said, hey, we're going to give it all we've got," Fox said.
At 7 p.m., two hours before tipoff, the doors were opened and hundreds and hundreds of students came rushing in to grab their seats (and free t-shirts). Georgia issued 2,000 student wristbands on the night it launched the new "Dawg Pound" student section and the section was full by 7:40. The crowd was loud and with much to cheer about for most of the night.
Playing on television is nothing new for Georgia, but playing in a Tuesday night game in primetime, on ESPN, against not only the unbeaten and No. 1 team in the country, but mighty Kentucky, that's about as big a stage as the Bulldogs have been on in a while. Also, former Auburn and NBA star Charles Barkley was in the stands, as were New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick and, of course, actress and monster Kentucky fan Ashley Judd. This was no ordinary night.
In what might be an average situation for Big Blue but was anything but for the Bulldogs, they shined in the spotlight.
"It was a great experience for our team to see that we can compete with a team of that level, but we already knew that coming into this game," said junior guard Kenny Gaines. "We didn't do the things we should have done to take care of business here at home."
Time after time in the first half and in the first 10-plus minutes of the second, the Bulldogs matched up with the Wildcats and answered every challenge. At the end of perhaps the best half of his career, senior forward Nemanja Djurisic hit a short floater at the buzzer to tie the game at 32-all at the break.
It was inspired ball from Djurisic, who scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the first 20 minutes -- and he did it with his parents, in town all the way from Podgorica, Montenegro, on hand for the first time.
"It's Senior Night, my last game here and I didn't want to be disappointed," he said. "I had my parents up there and it was special."
Playing Kentucky is like driving a Formula One race car. Everything you do has to be so precise and perfect or else bad, bad things happen.
"We played hard, we played very well, but we didn't play perfect," Fox said.
Georgia finished 3-for-17 from 3-point range and went 9-for-18 from the line, including missing the front end of several one-and-ones in the closing minutes. That helped the Wildcats rally from 56-47 down with 9:12 to play and close the game on a 25-8 run.
It wasn't a perfect game or a perfect ending, but a lot went right off the court. Georgia ended its home schedule with a perfect setting, one that gave the Bulldogs an average crowd of 7,517 for its 16 home games. That's the highest since 8,250 attended during the 2010-11 season, Fox's second in Athens, when the Bulldogs went 21-12 and were a 10 seed in the NCAA tournament.
