University of Georgia Athletics
Dog Notes: Striking The Right Balance
December 14, 2016 | Men's Basketball
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
No one or two Georgia Bulldogs carried the team Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum. Balance was perhaps the signature, and most important going forward, aspect of the Dogs' 73-60 victory over Louisiana.
There were key stretches when Yante Maten or J.J. Frazier took over, yes, but Juwan Parker and Derek Ogbeide also had big games. And the Dogs may not have come out on top in their first game in 10 days without significant contributions from several other players, as well.
"I guess that's just feeling rested with 10 days between games," Parker said. "You get time to get healthy, get a couple of the dings out and guys are excited to play again. It's almost like the first game of the season again."
Maten led all scorers with 18 points, while also grabbing a career-high 15 rebounds and blocking five shots (one shy of his career high). Frazier scored 15 points on a tough (6-for-18) shooting night and dished out six assists. Parker added 14 points and Ogbeide nine points, 13 rebounds (tying a career high) and six blocks (doubling his previous best effort).
"It was a team effort and that was good, because it proved that we can play as a team and get things done," Maten said.
Georgia (6-3) scored the game's first 10 points and never trailed. At the 8:39 mark of the first half, Maten hit two free throws. Then he hit his second 3-pointer of the game, followed by a dunk and a layup. It was a run of nine straight points for the Dogs by the junior, who had 14 points and nine rebounds at the half.
In the second half Frazier went on a run, scoring seven of nine Georgia points during a stretch of less than three minutes and assisting on the basket he didn't score.
Making his first start, freshman Jordan Harris hit four free throws early to help the Dogs get up 10. Pape Diatta hit a big second-half 3-pointer to give Georgia a 58-47 lead after the Ragin' Cajuns (8-3) kept hanging around, finishing with five points.
"I thought we had a lot of guys chip in tonight," Georgia coach Mark Fox said. "Pape Diatta made some key plays for us, I thought E'Torrian Wilridge made a huge play for us tonight, actually a couple of them, Jordan got us off to a good start — we had more guys chip in tonight."
Inside Stops
Of the Cajuns' 47 misses Wednesday, 11 of them were blocked shots by either Ogbeide or Maten. Many of those were on drives by Louisiana's guards, something that the Dogs had worked on leading up to the game.
Fox said he wanted to "impose our big guys on the game," which was certainly the case with 11 blocks and a combined 31 rebounds from Maten, Ogbeide and Mike Edwards. It was one of the sophomore Ogbeide's best all-around games for Georgia.
"He did it all tonight and that's what we need from him just about every night," Maten said. "I'm going to make sure I talk to him tonight and make sure that [he knows] now that we saw it and we know that he's capable of doing it, we're going to expect it."
Containing The Cajuns
Louisiana came in averaging 90.1 points per game, the seventh highest average in all of Division I. Georgia entered the game allowing 69.5 per game.
The Dogs held the Cajuns 30 points below their average and Louisiana, a team that came in shooting 50.4 percent from the field, missed its first eight attempts and shot 28.8 percent Wednesday.
"That was a really good game for us," Fox said. "Obviously Louisiana comes in as one of the top 10 scoring teams in the country, one of the top rebounding teams in the country and we just spent 10 days trying to become a better defending and rebounding team.
"We got better as a team and we beat a good basketball team."
What's Next?
Georgia is back at Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game against Charleston Southern.
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.
