UGA Basketball Leads the Entire Second Half in their Win over Winthrop
Athens, GA. – The UGA Men’s Basketball team came out victorious over the Winthrop University Eagles tonight at Stegeman Coliseum, 78-69. The Dawgs are now 3-3 (3-0 at home) while the Eagles drop to 4-3 (not 0-2 away).
The Dawgs started off the game strong with an 11-2 run which lasted until 14:37 when Winthrop center Alex Timmerman made a jumper to bring Winthrop to four points. This 9 point lead set UGA up early to take control of the game.
Soon after, the momentum changed in Winthop’s favor as they outscored UGA 19-6 through the middle of the first half (the run ended at 6:50). This change in momentum was mainly sparked by the efforts of 6’1” guard for Winthrop, Sin'Cere McMahon who made back to back 3- pointers to bring it back to a one point game.
UGA was able to take back control at the end of the half; however, when senior Jabri Abdur-Rahim sank three free throws in a row to tie the game at 25 a piece in minute 2:47. The Dawgs finished the half with three 3-pointers in the last two minutes (one by Abdur-Rahim and two by Noah Thomason) which put them up by nine points against the Eagles (UGA 36, Winthrop 27) despite the Eagles making a two point buzzer beater to end the first half.
The Eagles were never able to change momentum and get a single lead throughout the entire second half as the efforts of grad student Noah Thomasson and senior Justin Hill were able to seal the Dawgs’ win. Throughout the entire half, the Dawgs maintained a lead which peaked at 15 points at 15:28 (50-35) and dipped to its lowest of 4 points at 4:53 (60-64).
After having their lead significantly cut, the Dawgs were able to bounce back and out scored the Eagles 14 to 5 in the last 5 minutes of the game. Thomasson was of great assistance ensuring the win, taking 25 seconds off the clock and making two free throws with 27 seconds left to put UGA up 76 to 69. Justin Hill made two more additional free throws closing out the game.
The Dawgs looked like a team on the rise in their battle against the Winthrop Eagles. They were led by upperclassmen leadership as grad student Noah Thomason led the team in points, 24, grad student Russel Tchewa led the team in rebounds, 8, and senior Justin Hill led the team in assists, 3. This win should provide the team with confidence and momentum, preparing them for their upcoming game against Florida State on November 29th.
