Dawgs set to host Gators tonight

From UGA Sports Communications

Georgia Basketball Game Notes

Georgia (13-10, 4-6) vs. Florida (18-5, 8-2 SEC)

Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00 p.m. ET

Stegeman Coliseum (10,523) in Athens, Ga.

Watch: ESPN2 (Tom Hart, PBP; Kara Lawson, analyst)

• UF leads the all-time series with 112-102; however, UGA owns a 63-38 advantage in games played in Athens.

• Yante Maten is on the 10-player final watch list for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award as the nation’s top center.

• Derek Ogbeide is averaging a team-high 7.6 rpg in SEC play, No. 3 in stats for SEC games only.

• J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten are the nation’s ninth-best inside-outside scoring combo among teams with two top-250 scorers in country.

• Mark Fox is the first coach ever to lead UGA to three-straight 20-win finishes. UGA has notched three-conseuctive 20-win efforts two times in 111 seasons.

Bulldogs Conclude Three-Game Stretch Against League Leaders

The Georgia Bulldogs welcome the Florida Gators to Stegeman Coliseum on Tuesday evening at 7:00 p.m. in the final leg of a three-game stretch of games against the three teams currently atop the SEC standings.

The Bulldogs dropped an overtime decision at No. 8 Kentucky last Tuesday before falling by a single bucket at No. 19 South Carolina three days ago. Those dates wrapped up a road-heavy leg of Georgia's SEC slate. The Bulldogs played five of their last seven league games on the road, with additional trips to Ole Miss, Florida and Texas A&M.

The Bulldogs are 13-10 overall and 4-6 in  SEC play. Most recently, Georgia dropped a 77-75 decision at No. 19 South Carolina last Saturday in a back-and-forth affair featuring eight ties and 18 lead changes.

Yante Maten leads Georgia in both scoring (19.7 ppg) and rebounding (7.4 rpg). Among SEC leaders, he is second in scoring and third in rebounding. Maten also ranks second in the league in double-doubles with five.

J.J. Frazier is contributing 16.0 ppg (No. 6 in the SEC) and leads the league in both steals (2.0 spg) and playing time (33.8 mpg).

Maten, a junior forward, and Frazier, a senior guard, are one of the nation's most potent inside-outside offensive tandems. Their combined average of 35.7 ppg ranks No. 9 nationally among guard-forward scoring duos with both players ranked among the nation's top-250 scorers. They are the only teammates in the top-10 from a Power 5 conference.

In statistics for conference games only, Maten and Frazier currently rank No. 2 and No. 4 in the SEC in scoring at 19.6 ppg and 17.2 ppg, respectively.

Juwan Parker, who has been Georgia's third-leading scorer for the majority of the season, is on a tear of late. Parker averaged 8.0 ppg in non-conference play but is contributing 11.2 ppg in league action. That has upped his season average to 9.5 ppg.

Florida improved to 18-5 overall and 8-2 in the SEC with its decisive 88-66 win over Kentucky on Saturday.

KeVaughn Allen sports a team-high scoring average of 13.6 ppg, while Canyon Barry and Devin Robinson chip in at double-digit clips of 12.8 ppg and 12.0 ppg, respectively. Kasey Hill is three points shy of giving the Gators a fourth double-figure scorer.

Keeping An Eye On…Entering Today’s Game:

Among UGA’s Career Leaders

J.J. Frazier is

• 12  points from No. 16 Ronnie Hogue

• 28 points from No. 15 Levi Stukes

• 41 points from No. 14 Trey Thompkins

• 96 points from No. 10 D.A. Layne

• 7 3FGs from No. 7 G.G. Smith

• 8 3FGs from No. 6 Dustin Ware

• 27 3FGs from co-No. 4s Ezra Williams and Kenny Gaines

• 15 3FGAs from No. 6 Dustin Ware

• 20 FTs from No. 4 Vern Fleming

• 15 FTAs from No. 13 Jerry Waller

• 17 FTAs from No. 12 James Banks

• 20 steals from co-No. 8s Rashad Wright and Chris Daniels

• 19 assists from No. 8 Pertha Robinson

Yante Maten is...

• 26 blocks from No. 3 Terrell Bell

• 54 points from No. 27 Ray Harrison

Series History With The Gators

Florida enters Saturday’s game with Georgia sporting a 112-102 advantage in the all-time series; however, Georgia is 63-38 against the Gators in Athens.

Florida is Georgia’s most frequent foe all-time, with 214 meetings. That slightly outdistances Georgia Tech with 193 games.

In the most recent matchup three and a half weeks ago on Jan. 14 in Gainesville, Georgia fell 80-76 to No. 23 Florida in a back-and-forth game that spilled into overtime in the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center.

The Bulldogs led for the majority of regulation and 35:11 of the game’s 45 minutes overall but could not pull off the upset.

J.J. Frazier led Georgia in scoring with 25 points, and Juwan Parker chipped in a career-high 17 points. Yante Maten contributed 15 points but fouled out after playing a season-low 19 minutes.

With just less than five minutes left in regulation, Frazier intercepted a Gator pass and converted it into a breakaway layup to give Georgia a five-point advantage at 64-59. The Gators tied it up at 65-65 moments later.

Jordan Harris made a left-handed hook to push the Bulldogs in front again 67-65 with 1:09 left. Florida's Kasey Hill went to the line with 24 seconds remaining and made one of two, but the Gators grabbed the offensive rebound. In the closing seconds, Hill again drew a foul and made only one free throw, tying the game and sending it into overtime.

Florida took the early advantage in OT with two free throws, but Georgia Frazier responded with a 3-pointer to take the lead at 70-69. The lead would be the last for the Bulldogs as they were unable to gain the upper hand down the stretch.

The Gators last visited Stegeman Coliseum on Feb. 16 last season, with Florida withstanding a late rally by the Bulldogs en route to a 57-53 win.

Georgia led by six points at the half and inched that margin to seven twice in the second stanza, lastly at 33-26 with 13:39 left.

Florida used an 8-0 run to grab a 34-33 lead less than three minutes later.

The lead changed hands several times over the next seven minutes before back-to-back buckets put Florida up 52-47 with 2:07 remaining. The Bulldogs closed the game to three and gained possession with 19 seconds left, but Kenny Gaines' potential game-tying 3-pointer with seven ticks on the clock was off the mark.

Last Time Out

The Georgia Bulldogs fought to the end but fell just short to the No. 19 South Carolina Gamecocks 77-75 in the closing seconds Saturday afternoon at Colonial Life Arena.

The Gamecocks led by nine with 2:21 left in regulation before the Bulldogs reeled their deficit back in. J.J. Frazier hit a floater to make it 73-68 with a little over a minute remaining. Then Georgia forced a shot-clock violation on the Gamecocks' following possession and made it to the foul line where Turtle Jackson cut it to 73-69 with 26 seconds left. Despite the Bulldogs continuing to make baskets down the stretch, South Carolina converted their free throws to secure the win.

Frazier and Yante Maten spearheaded the Bulldogs’ attack with 18 points apiece. Juwan Parker chipped in 11. On the glass, Derek Ogbeide gathered a game-high 11 rebounds, his fifth double-digit board output in SEC play.

Following a 38-38 tie at halftime, the game remained knotted at 51-51 at the midway point of the second stanza.

South Carolina pulled away with an 8-0 run starting at the 9:44 mark, but the Bulldogs didn't go away.

Frazier hit a pair of free throws to cut it to four points at the 4:37 mark. South Carolina responded with two free throws and a Justin McKie 3-pointer that stretched their advantage to nine, the largest of the game, at 67-58 with 3:17 remaining. The lead proved to be just enough as the Bulldogs ran out of time.

Georgia shot a 49-percent clip from the floor compared to South Carolina’s 43-percent shooting. The Bulldogs also outrebounded the Gamecocks 36-28.

Just Call Him A Basketball Player

Yante Maten was named as one of 10 watch list finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award as the nation’s top center on Feb. 3. That news came after Maten was on the 25-player preseason watch list for the Karl Malone Award as the premier power forward in the country.

Maten was the only player in the nation who switched from one position to another on the watch lists for the national position player of the year awards administered by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

During a teleconference following the annoucement, Maten was asked to if he considers himself a forward or a center.

“I consider myself a basketball player, let’s just put it like that,” Maten stated. “Wherever they want to try to put my game in, that’s really up to them. But I just play basketball how I play basketball.”

A Challenging SEC Slate

Georgia’s league schedule will no doubt be among the SEC’s most challenging. The conference’s unbalanced slate has teams facing five schools on a home-and-home basis.

Each team in the Bulldogs’ quintet of two-time foes was in the top-100 of Monday’s NCAA RPI. Three of those were in the top-20 – No. 7 Kentucky, No. 12 Florida, No. 18 South Carolina. The others were No. 63 Auburn and No. 77 Alabama.

Georgia, which was No. 54 in the most recent RPI, is the only SEC school scheduled to play the Wildcats, Gators and Gamecocks – three league teams most experts have listed as NCAA Tournament probables for most of the season.

Diatta’s Ties To Gainesville

Pape Diatta (pronounced Pop G-ah-tuh) is a native of Senegal, but he’s very familiar with the home of the Gators.

Diatta attended The Rock School in Gainesville, Fla., from 2010-14. He helped the Lions capture the 2013 Sunshine Independent Athletic Association (SIAA) state title as a junior. As a senior, Diatta averaged 11.6 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 2.5 apg and 1.4 spg to help The Rock reach the state tournament semifinals. He was named first-team Al-Area by the Gainesville Sun in 2014.

Diatta played two seasons at the College of Southern Idaho. He was a two-year starter and helped CSI to a combined 53-12 record.

Dogs Among Top Scoring Duos

J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten are one of the nation’s top guard-forward scoring combos.

In stats through games of Feb. 5, those Bulldogs comprised the ninth-best inside-outside scoring tandem in the nation – and the only duo from a Power 5 conference – among teams with two scorers in the top-250 nationally as outlined below.

Top Guard-Forward Scoring Combos

 Rk. Inside Outside School Average

 1. P. Aldridge (21.0)  J. Gibbs (21.4) Davidson 42.4

 3. R. Thomas (20.2)  E. Amin (17.8) Texas A&M-CC 38.0

 4. E. Kovlechov (18.6)  M. Evans (18.6) Rice 37.2

 5. T. Williams (17.9)  E. Brown (19.0) New Mexico 36.9

 6. T. Miller (15.7)  J. Stark (21.0) Murray State 36.7

 9. S. Taylor (16.0)  J. Williams (20.6) Toledo 36.6

 7. T.J. Cline (18.8)  S. Jones (17.5) Richmond 36.3

 8. X. Cooks (15.4)  K. Johnson (20.6) Winthrop 36.0

 10. Y. Maten (19.7)  J.J. Frazier (16.0) Georgia 35.7

 10. B.J. Johnson (17.8)  J. Price (17.6) La Salle 35.4

A Quartet of Bitter Pills

Georgia, which won its first two SEC road games at Auburn and Ole Miss this season, has since suffered four painful league losses away from Stegeman Coliseum.

The Bulldogs have been agonizingly close to victory in each outing – at No. 23 Florida, Texas A&M, No. 8 Kentucky and No. 19 South Carolina. That includes a one-point decision in College Station, a two-point setback in Columbia and overtime outings against the Gators and Wildcats.

All told, the Bulldogs led for 91:56 of the 130 minutes played during the first three contests – 35:11 at Florida, 37:10 at Texas A&M, 19:35 at Kentucky. Georgia trailed for just 27:25 in those three games combined.

The Bulldogs led for 11:16 at South Carolina, a game featured eight ties and no less than 18 lead changes. 

In addition, the Bulldogs made more field goals at a higher percentage against the Gators, Aggies and Wildcats as outlined below.

Though South Carolina did make two more shots from the floor, Georgia outrebounded the Gamecocks but a healthy 36-28 margin.

FGs Made & FG Percentages

 UGA UGA. Opp. Opp.

Opponent FGs FG Pct. FGs FG Pct.

No. 23 Florida 28 48.3 22 40.0

Texas A&M 22 42.3 21 36.2

No. 8 Kentucky 30 49.2 27 42.2

No. 19 S. Carolina 24 49.0 26 43.3

Averages 26.0 47.5 24.0 41.0

Ogbeide Produces Career Night

Derek Ogbeide enjoyed the biggest game of his collegiate career last on perhaps the biggest stage during his two seasons in Athens.

The sophomore notched career highs with 18 points and 13 rebounds at No. 8 Kentucky last Tuesday. 

Ogbeide’s contributions on the glass have jumped in SEC play, from 6.6 rpg in November and December non-conference games to 7.6 rpg in league play. Ogbeide leads the Bulldogs with seven double-figure rebounding performances, with five of those coming against SEC foes. He ranks No. 3 in rebounding in stats for SEC games only. 

Though he lacks the number of FGs made to qualify for SEC statistical leaders, Ogbeide sports team-best shooting percentages of .593 overall and .596 in league play.

Parker Back, Production Up

Juwan Parker has enjoyed a successful return to action after missing the last season and a half with the Achilles injury.

Parker has started all but one game – missing the Morehouse to rest his Achilles due to soreness – and is third on the team in scoring (9.5 ppg) and rebounding (5.5 rpg) and second in assists (2.0 apg). 

Those are considerably higher than his career averages entering this year of 4.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg and 0.9 apg.

Parker also has set new career highs for points (17 vs. both Florida & Vanderbilt), boards (11 vs. George Washington), assists (five vs. George Washington) and minutes (40 vs. Florida).

The Final Exams break seemed to be good for Parker.

In his first 58 games at UGA from his freshman year through a Dec. 4 matchup with Marquette, Parker reached double figures in the scoring column just once.

In 15 games since the Finals break, Parker has produced 10 double-digit scoring outputs, including eight of UGA’s 10 SEC outings. 

After averaging 8.0 ppg in non-conference play during November and December, he is averaging 11.2 ppg in SEC action. 

Parker started the first 14 games UGA’s 2015 NCAA Tournament team before suffering the injury. He played limited minutes in four contests that season but was out all of last year after surgery in the summer of 2015.

Dogs Getting Defensive...Again

A year ago, Georgia was one of – if not the – best defensive teams in the SEC, leading the SEC in field goal percentage defense in conference play at .385.

UGA also was one of two teams – along with Kentucky – to hold its SEC foes under 40 percent shooting. 

This season, Georgia is No. 2 in the SEC in FG defense, both overall (.404) and in SEC action (.406).

Frazier, Maten Top Millennium Mark 

This season, J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten have become the 47th and 48th Bulldogs to reach 1,000-point career scoring plateau.

Frazier reached the milestone with a 3-pointer at the 17:57 mark of the first half against UNC Asheville on Nov. 14. Maten joined him with a successful free throw with 9:41 remaining in the Bulldogs' game against South Carolina on Jan. 4.

Frazier has since upped his career tally to 1,355 points, pushing him to No. 17 on the Bulldogs’ career scoring leaders ledger.

Maten now has 1,176 points. In the last eight games alone, Maten has ascended from No. 47 to No. 28 on UGA’s career scoring leaders ledger. 

Bulldogs have reached the millennium mark at a relatively steady clip over the past several seasons.

Frazier and Maten are the seventh and eighth Bulldogs to top 1,000 career points during Mark Fox's tenure, joining Charles Mann (1,411 points), Trey Thompkins (1,396), Kenny Gaines (1,324), Nemi Djurisic (1,123), Travis Leslie (1,099) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (1,013).

Maten A Consistent Performer

Yante Maten, the only SEC player on the watch list for the Karl Malone Award as the nation’s top power forward, has been a model of consistency since the start of last season.

In 57 games during his sophomore and junior years, Maten has 52 double-digit scoring outputs (with 20 20-point and four 30-point games), grabbed double-figure rebounds 16 times and posted 15 double-doubles.

32+34=Solid Production at the “5”

Georgia’s tandem No. 32 Mike Edwards and No. 34 Derek Ogbeide is giving the Bulldogs very solid production on the low block. 

To date, the classmates are contributing a double-double at 11.2 points and 11.0 rebounds per game for the Bulldogs. 

Edwards and Ogbeide are combining to log 39.8 minutes per game, primarily manning the ‘5’ spot together.

Ogbeide is averaging 7.3 ppg and 7.0 rpg in 21.0 mpg. Edwards is at 3.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg and 17.8 mpg.

Frazier Grabs UGA Career FT Mark

J.J. Frazier became UGA’s career record holder for free throw percentage during the Bulldogs’ win at Georgia Tech on Dec. 20.

The senior from Glennville, Ga., opened the season at No. 2 among UGA’s career leaders in free throw efficiency at 81.1728 percent. That trailed only Jerry Eppling’s effort of 82.1561 percent (221-of-269) from 1968-70.

Frazier has connected on 94-of-106 (88.7 percent) of his trips to the line this season, which has raised his career percentage to 83.0233 (357-of-430).

Harris Starts, Contributions Up

Jordan Harris moved into the Bulldogs' starting five against UL Lafayette on Dec. 14. Harris became the 10th Bulldog to start as a freshman during the last seven seasons. 

He joined five current teammates on that list – senior Houston Kessler; juniors Yante Maten and Juwan Parker; and sophomores Mike Edwards and Derek Ogbeide.

Harris' PT and contributions have jumped considerably of late. He averaged 4.7 ppg, 0.7 rpg and 11.6 mpg in the first 10 games of the season – with a DNP in the opener at Clemson – but is contributing 6.6 ppg, 2.4 rpg and 24.1 mpg in the last 13 games. 

During that span, Harris also has posted career highs for points (12 at Auburn), rebounds (five vs. South Carolina), assists (five at Ga. Tech), blocks (two at Ole Miss), steals (three at Ole Miss) and minutes (36 at Florida).

Turtle For 3...almost Exclusively

Eighteen of William “Turtle” Jackson’s 29 field goals this season have been 3-pointers. 

In fact, Jackson’s first 11 made shots from the field came from behind the arc.

Jackson’s 3-point heavy tally is not surprising. Last season, 10 of his 13 field goals were 3-pointers and his shooting percentage was better from beyond (33.3 percent) than overall (28.3 percent).

For his career, 28 of Jackson’s 42 FGs have come from farther than 20-feet, 9-inches from the basket. 

Maten Joins Top-10 UGA Swatters

Yante Maten joined Georgia’s top-10 career leaders for blocked shots against Marquette on Dec. 4. 

The junior from Pontiac, Mich., has since ascended to the No. 4 position, which he currently shares with Dominique Wilkins. He is 26 blocks from No. 3 Terrell Bell.

A HomeGrown Roster

Nine of the 15 players on Georgia’s 2016-17 roster are Peach State prep products.

That list includes eight of the 14 active players on the Bulldogs’ roster – seniors J.J. Frazier, Houston Kessler and Brandon Young; sophomores William “Turtle” Jackson, Connor O’Neill and Derek Ogbeide; and freshmen Tyree Crump and Jordan Harris.

In addition, Christian Harrison, a walk-on transfer from Troy who is sitting out this season, played at Woodward Academy.