Streaking Bulldogs host Razorbacks

There is SEC basketball this evening in Athens: the Georgia Bulldogs play their Conference home opener against the Arkansas Razorbacks. It’s a game that tips at 9 o’clock tonight in Stegeman Coliseum.

From Mike Mobley, UGA Sports Communications...

The Starting Five

• Georgia hosts Arkansas on Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. looking to extend a pair of nine-game winning streaks – both overall and at Stegeman Coliseum.

• Georgia’s nine-game winning streak equals the fifth-longest streak in program history and also was the nation’s fifth-longest active streak entering this week.

• Georgia is 9-0 at Stegeman Coliseum this season, improving to 22-4 in Mike White’s two seasons at UGA. White is 29-5 all-time at Stegeman, including a 7-1 mark while at Louisiana Tech and Florida.

• Georgia will play 14 of 31 (45.2 percent) regular-season games against teams currently featured ESPN.com’s bracketology...and has two more outings against Florida, the “first team out.”

• Georgia was the nation’s only Power conference team to face four Power conference foes in its first five outings (Oregon, Wake Forest, Miami and Providence).

The Opening Tip

Georgia returns to the extremely friendly confines of Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday evening to face Arkansas. The Bulldogs are riding a pair of nine-game winning streaks.

Georgia improved to 11-3 on the year with last Saturday’s victory at Missouri in its SEC opener. The Bulldogs have won nine straight games – both overall and at Stegeman Coliseum.

The overall streak, which dates back to a Nov. 24 victory over Winthrop, ties the fifth-longest in 118 seasons of Georgia Basketball and – entering this week – was tied for the fifth-longest active streak among the 362 teams competing at the Division I level this season.

Georgia’s 9-0 start at Stegeman equals the seventh-longest overall and sixth-longest single-season home winning steak ever by the Bulldogs. It’s also the fourth-longest in 61 seasons of play in the Coliseum.

Jabri Abdur-Rahim is the Bulldogs’ leading scorer at 12.9 ppg. The senior from South Orange, N.J., sports team-leading shooting percentages of .432 from 3-point range and .882 at the free throw line. Noah Thomasson also is scoring at a double-digit pace for the Bulldogs at 12.5 ppg.

Russel Tchewa is coming off his best outing as a Bulldog at Missouri. The graduate transfer from Douala, Cameroon notched season-high tallies of 18 points and 11 rebounds en route to his first double-double at UGA.

Justin Hill is distributing a team-best 3.3 assists per game and entered the week ranked fourth in the SEC and No. 50 nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.71.

Keeping An Eye On…

Among UGA’s career leaders...

Jabri Abdur-Rahim is

• 6 3FGs from No. 19 Michael Chadwick

• 11 3FGs from No. 18 Sundiata Gaines

• 12 3FGs from No. 17 Rashad Wright

• 1 3FGAs from No. 20 Nemi Djurisic

Career statistics wise...

RJ Sunahara is

• Playing in his 99th career game

• 4 rebounds from 600

• 2 FGAs from 1000

Russel Tchewa is

• 11 rebounds from 600

Noah Thomasson is

• Playing in his 100th career game

• 5 assists from 250

• 1 FGs from 500

• 25 FGAs from 1000

Scouting The Razorbacks

Arkansas arrives in Athens with a somewhat deceptive 9-5 record. Four of the Razorbacks’ five setbacks are teams ranked in this week’s AP poll – No. 7 North Carolina, No. 9 Oklahoma, No. 13 Memphis and No. 16 Auburn. Arkansas also owns a win over No. 11 Duke.

Tramon Mark leads a trio of Razorbacks scoring at a double-digit pace at 16.5 ppg. Keyon Menefield Jr. and Khalif Battle are chipping in 14.8 ppg and 13.6 ppg, respectively. Trevon Brazile is a single point shy of averaging double figures at 9.9 ppg and leads Arkansas in rebounding at 6.9 rpg.

Series History With Arkansas

Despite Georgia owning a 10-7 lead in meetings between the Bulldogs and Arkansas in Athens, the Razorbacks possess a 26-16 advantage in the all-time series.

In the most recent matchup last season on Feb. 21 in Fayetteville, Kario Oquendo scored 20 points to lead a trio of Bulldogs in double figures in a 97-65 setback to the Razorbacks.

Arkansas grabbed an early lead, gradually expanded that margin to 18-8 with 11:42 left in the first half and led by double digits the rest of the evening.

Oquendo’s 17-point outing also led Georgia during Arkansas’ last trip to Athens, a 99-73 setback to the Razorbacks on Feb. 2, 2022.

Georgia led for 12:33 of a first half that featured three ties and seven lead changes.

The Razorbacks knocked down a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the period up 53-47. Those totals represented the most points the Bulldogs scored and gave up in a first half during the 2021-22 season.

Arkansas began the second period with a 12-2 surge over the opening 3:17 to take control of the contest.

Last Time Out

Russel Tchewa’s season-high tallies of 18 points and 11 rebounds led to his first double-double at Georgia and, more importantly, a 75-68 win at Missouri in the SEC opener last Saturday.

Tchewa was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and 8-of-9 from the line for Georgia. His 11 rebounds was more than one-third of the 30 individual boards collected by Bulldogs in the contest. Justin Hill added a season-high 16 points, Noah Thomasson chipped in 15 points (including the 1,200th of his career) and Silas Demary Jr. added 10 in his SEC debut.

Georgia used a 16-0 surge to grab a 17-point, 35-18 with 5:50 left in the first half before Missouri responded and cut that gap to 40-38 at the intermission.

The contest was a one-possession game for 13:09 of the first 16:29 of the second stanza before the Bulldogs closed out the contest on a 12-3 run.

“From the foul line, especially late, we converted at a pretty high rate,” head coach Mike White said. “I thought we hit some timely threes where if two or three of them don’t go, we could’ve been in trouble and the game could’ve gone the other way. I thought down the stretch defensively, we were pretty sharp. Our communication was at an all-time high in those 40 [minutes] of course, and then the bench scoring continues to help us.”

The victory represented the first time Georgia opened SEC play with a road victory since winning at Auburn, 96-84, on Dec. 29, 2016.

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