The Bulldogs (19-9, 7-8 SEC) had a two-game winning streak broken on Wednesday when they dropped an 88-80 decision at No. 25 Vanderbilt. A win over the Gamecocks would give the Bulldogs a sweep of the season series; Georgia prevailed in Columbia, S.C. by a 75-70 count on Jan. 10.
Georgia is No. 33 in the NCAA’s NET rankings, the seventh-highest rating among Southeastern Conference teams.
“Our focus has to get better against high-level defenses, something we’ll address,” Georgia coach Mike White said. “Got to get on the same page. We’ve got to communicate better offensively. Again, the biggest problem (against Vanderbilt) was just being able to generate stops defensively and keep them off the foul line.”
Jeremiah Wilkinson scored 28 points in the loss, the ninth time he has reached 20 points this season. Over the last five games Wilkinson has averaged 20.2 points, higher than his season average of 17.7 points.
Blue Cain (13.7 points), Marcus “Smurf” Millender (11.8 points) and Kanon Catchings (10.9) also average double figures for the Bulldogs.
South Carolina (12-16, 3-12) is coming off a 72-63 loss to Kentucky. The Gamecocks got within two points with three minutes left but went 3-for-12 from the floor in the final two minutes. They have lost eight of their last nine games.
“There’s a lot of things that I’m going to look at and say, ‘We could have done that better,'” South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said after the Kentucky game. “But when the dust all settled, we put ourselves in position to win the game late in the game.”
South Carolina’s Meechie Johnson scored 18 points with six assists against Kentucky, the 14th time he’s had five or more assists. He has scored in double figures in 14 consecutive games. He leads the team at 17.1 points and 4.3 assists, the latter fifth-best in the SEC.
Mike Sharavjamts (11.1 points, 5.4 rebounds), Elijah Strong (10.7 points) and Kobe Knox (10.6) all average in double figures for the Gamecocks.
