University of Georgia Athletics
Leffew 3s Keep Falling For Bulldogs
December 04, 2024 | Men's Basketball, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
Dakota Leffew kept doing Tuesday what he's been doing all season for the Georgia men's basketball team. The 6-foot-4 guard had his sixth game this season with at least three 3-pointers, hitting four and scoring 16 points in the Bulldogs' 69-48 win over Notre Dame at Stegeman Coliseum.
Leffew has come off the bench in all nine of the Bulldogs' games, and he's provided quite a lift when the graduate transfer from Mount St. Mary's has been on the court, After Tuesday's 4-for-9 performance from 3-point range, he is shooting 41% (25-for-61) this season from 3 and shooting 46.6% from the field overall.
"It feels good coming off the bench and being an instant offense and picking up on what we need," he said.
Against the Irish (4-5), Georgia missed its first nine shots and trailed Notre Dame 6-0 after more than four minutes. A dunk by Somto Cyril off a nice pass from Tyrin Lawrence got the Bulldogs (8-1) on the scoreboard. Leffew, who subbed in along with Cyril and Dylan James with 15:25 to go in the first half, then hit a 3 from the right wing to make it 6-5.
Later, good ball movement by the Bulldogs led to Leffew getting another good look from the right wing. That 3 was part of a 13-0 Georgia run over 6:30 that resulted in an 18-9 Bulldog lead; Leffew had 8 points in the run.
Notre Dame cut the lead to 18-14, and then Leffew hit his third 3 in as many attempts. While Leffew was hitting from the outside, freshman Asa Newell, the 6-11 forward, was getting rolling in the paint. Newell scored three baskets inside, two of them dunks, in an 8-0 spurt that gave the Bulldogs control of the game for good. Newell finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
In the second half, Leffew hit one more 3 and also showed his touch closer to the hoop by hitting a couple of soft 10-footers on the baseline. His last one made it 63-48 with 1:18 left in the game. Georgia was a team-high plus-28 with Leffew on the floor. Along with his 16 points on 6 of 12 shooting overall, he had four rebounds and three assists.
Leffew's production is similar to what he did at Mount St. Mary's. He started 63 games and played in 99 over his four seasons with the Mountaineers. He scored 1,137 points and hit 176 3-pointers over those four seasons, and last season he averaged 17.6 points a game, earning first-team All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference honors.
Leffew hit 36.5% of his 3-pointers for the Mount last season, a solid percentage. From Leffew's opening game as a Bulldog, when he went 4-for-6 on 3s against Tennessee Tech, the Hampton, Ga., native has been hitting from long range at a higher rate with the Bulldogs. He's also third on the team with 27 assists and second with 16 steals.
Other than Leffew's 4-for-9 from 3, it was a cold night from long range for the Bulldogs with the rest of the team going 2-for-15. Georgia coach Mike White said his team needs to shoot it better, but he was thrilled with its defensive performance. The Irish shot just 4 of 19 on 3s and 19 of 52 overall, and guard Silas Demary Jr. had five of Georgia's seven steals.
"They share it, they shoot it, they spray it from 3, and the key to the game was defending those 3s," White said. "For them to go four of 19 gave us a great shot."
Assistant Sports Communications Director 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.
