Georgia Edges Bison Men’s Basketball, 65-61

ATHENS, Ga. – Bucknell received 19 points from Xander Rice and took Georgia right down to the final seconds, but the Bulldogs iced it with good free-throw shooting and held on for a 65-61 win on Friday night in a campus-site game at the Greenlight Sunshine Slam, presented by Discount Tire.

Alex Timmerman and Andre Screen scored 10 points apiece for the Bison (2-2), who held Georgia (3-1) to 33.3 percent shooting but were hampered by a big foul disparity. The Bulldogs went 23-for-26 from the foul line, while the Bison were 8-for-8.

Terry Roberts had a big game for Georgia with 20 points, nine rebounds, and six assists. Jabri Abdur-Rahim was the only other Bulldog in double figures with 10 points. Georgia was 6-for-21 from the 3-point arc but hit three straight in a key stretch in the second half.

Bucknell never trailed until the early moments of the second half, and then Georgia made a big run midway through the period to seemingly take control. A 17-2 surge gave the Bulldogs a 55-41 lead with 8:12 to go, but the Bison fought back.

Back-to-back buckets in the lane by Elvin Edmonds IV ended a field-goal drought of more than five minutes, and Rice hit a big three to get the deficit back to single digits. Georgia scored four straight to go up 60-48, but the Bulldogs' last field goal came at the 5:49 mark.

Ian Motta scored with a baseline drive, Rice hit a short jumper off an inbounds pass, Screen finished at the rim, and Rice canned his third triple of the night to make it a 61-57 game with 1:02 to play.

Bucknell forced a shot-clock violation, but Rice couldn't connect on a 3-pointer at the other end. Roberts made two free throws before Edmonds made both ends of a 1-and-1 to make it 63-59 with 13 seconds left. Edmonds stole the inbounds pass and was stripped going up, but the ball went out to Bucknell. Rice then drove the lane and tossed a perfect lob to Screen for an alley-oop, and the Bison trailed by just two with eight seconds to go.

Georgia had to call a timeout to get the ball in, and then barely got it in the second time, but Justin Hill made two big free throws with 5.9 seconds left to ice it.

"I thought our guys really fought hard tonight," said head coach Nathan Davis. "The difference between winning and losing usually comes down to a couple of plays, and unfortunately we let that run get away from us in the second half. I was proud of how we fought back and made it a one-possession game and had a very good chance to win it at the end. We have a lot of positives to build on, but now we need to go down to Daytona and take care of some of the things that have cost us in the last two games."

Georgia didn't take its first lead until 3:43 into the second half when it used a 6-0 spurt to go up 38-34. Bucknell quickly shot back with a Rice 3-pointer and a Jake van der Heijden reverse layup.

That would be Bucknell's last field goal for a span of 5:23, however, and Georgia scored 17 of the next 19 points to open up a 55-41 lead. The Bulldogs had been 3-14 from the 3-point arc, but Abdur-Rahim, Roberts, and Jaxon Etter hit three in a row. When they finally did miss one, Abdur-Rahim was there for the tip-in to cap the run with 8:12 remaining.

Bucknell shot 44.4 percent from the field, but after coming in as the fifth-best 3-point shooting team in the country managed just 5 of 20 from the arc in this one. This was the first time all season the Bison shot under 50 percent from the floor.

The Bison were strong on the glass early in the game, but Georgia ended up with 15 offensive rebounds and finished with a 37-29 rebounding edge.

Bucknell played the Bulldogs to a 30-30 draw in the first half, despite an 11-2 foul disparity that led to an 11-2 point differential at the foul line. The Bison held Georgia to 28.6-percent shooting in the half and never trailed in the opening 20 minutes.

Bucknell used an early 8-0 run to snap a 5-5 tie, keyed by a couple of Timmerman layups. Timmerman's backdoor feed to Rice for an easy layup gave the Bison a 30-24 lead with 2:10 to go in the half, but Georgia scored the final six to draw even. KyeRon Lindsay had back-to-back dunks, and Roberts made two free throws with 3.7 seconds left.

Edmonds tallied nine points and four assists for the Bison, while van der Heijden led the team with seven rebounds.

The Greenlight Sunshine Slam now shifts to Daytona Beach, where the Bison will play Presbyterian on Monday and either Austin Peay or UAlbany on Tuesday.

Gallery: (11-18-2022) Men's Basketball at Georgia

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Team Stats

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Elvin Edmonds IV

Players Mentioned

Elvin Edmonds IV

Ian Motta

Xander Rice

Andre Screen

Alex Timmerman

Jake van der Heijden