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Auburn rallies past Lady Dogs

The Georgia Lady Bulldog basketball team led for over 35 minutes and watched a 13-point fourth quarter advantage disappear in a 59-58 overtime loss to Auburn on Sunday.

Freshman Caitlin Hose nailed a 3-point basket at the 9:43 mark of the fourth period to put Georgia up 43-30. Auburn outscored the Lady Bulldogs 19-6 over the remaining minutes in regulation to send the game into overtime.

In the extra period, Auburn’s Crystal Grimm hit two free-throws with six seconds to go and Gabby Connally missed a heave at the buzzer in the 59-58 defeat.

Georgia is now 13-9 overall and 4-5 in the SEC. Auburn is 17-5 and 5-4 in the SEC.

“It’s turnovers, free-throws and second-chance points,” head coach Joni Taylor said. “We held them to 30 percent shooting, which is more than enough to win the game, but turnovers, free-throws and second-chance points just killed us. Auburn is aggressive — that’s what they do. We have to overcome that, and we were unable to do so today.”

Auburn missed its first four shots of the game as the Lady Bulldogs led 5-0 in the early going. Georgia then went over four minutes without a basket on its way to a 7-7 tie at the end of the first quarter.

In a sluggish first half, Caliya Robinson was the only player on the floor who could score. She finished with a near double-double of 12 points and seven rebounds in the first 20 minutes and the Lady Bulldogs led 22-19 at the break.

A pair of 3-pointers — one from Hose and the other from Taja Cole — helped the Lady Bulldogs build their largest advantage to that point, 40-30, at the end of three quarters.

It did not take long for Hose to knock in another one — this time from the left side of the arch to put her team up 43-30. Georgia’s lead was short-lived as Primm hit a lay-up with 14 seconds to go to send the game into overtime.

From there, Georgia went up 56-53 in the overtime period off a layup from Robinson and then Stephanie Paul put her team up 58-57 with just 16 seconds remaining. Primm was then fouled on a putback and knocked in two free-throws to put the final at 59-58.

Georgia fell despite a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds from Robinson. Georgia shot 46 percent from the field compared to just a 30-percent effort from Auburn. The Lady Bulldogs also committed a season-high 28 turnovers.

Georgia now returns home to host Florida on Sunday, Feb. 10 at noon ET.

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