The “Ant Man Show” everybody came to see never really materialized, but the Georgia Bulldogs got a good show from Rayshaun Hammonds, and that gave a near-capacity crowd at Stegeman Coliseum the main thing it wanted to see — another win over Georgia Tech.
With Anthony “Ant Man” Edwards struggling to find his offensive game in the first half, Hammonds was more than happy to step up with 19 points. And when Hammonds got slapped with his fourth foul in the second half, Edwards took over by scoring 16 during that period. Put together, they finished with 26 and 18 points, respectively, and that helped the Bulldogs to a 82-78 win over the Yellow Jackets before an appreciative home crowd of 10,205, or about 300 spectators short of a sellout.
"They were pressing on me and Tyree (Crump) in the first half," said Edwards, a 5-star freshman who is averaging 19.2 points through his first four college games. "If they do that, we've got the best 4 (power forward) in the country (Hammonds) and he's gonna eat."
The victory gave the Bulldogs (4-0) a five-game winning streak over their archrivals for the first time since 1941. That means this year's senior class becomes the second in a row to matriculate without losing to the Yellow Jackets.
That was the stated goal by second-year coach Tom Crean, who told the players he wanted the Bulldogs to become known as “Georgia’s Team” when it comes to college basketball in the state.
“Absolutely,” Crean said. “We're the University of Georgia, right so we want to be Georgia's team. That’s something we want to build. We've got a lot of Georgia kids. ... That’s really, really important, and this is a huge rivalry.”
With another large crowd at Stegeman, the Bulldogs have played before 35,152 fans in their first four games. That’s the second-most over the first four home games in school history. It’s just shy of the mark of 38,741 when UGA had Dominique Wilkins in the 1981-82 season. The arena held 11,200 that year and two of those games were against Kentucky and Tech.
“The place was jumping,” Crean said.
Georgia leaves for Hawaii and the Maui Invitational on Friday. The Bulldogs play Dayton on Monday (2:30 p.m., ESPN2).
The Yellow Jackets, in their fourth season under Josh Pastner, fall to 2-1. Michael Devoe led the visitors with 34 points, including six in the last 10 seconds. Devoe made a half-court 3-pointer at the final buzzer.
After scoring just two points on two free throws in the first half, Edwards scored in all manner of ways after halftime. Though he struggled with his shot most of the night, finishing 5-of-15 from the floor, he found it when Georgia needed it most.
When Hammonds picked up his fourth foul and had to leave the game with 10:16 remaining, Georgia was clinging to a 56-48 lead. Edwards steopped up and made his first 3 30 seconds later. That ignited what would end in a 10-2 run with Hammonds on the sideline.
“He’s a pro, and that’s what pros do,” Tech’s Pastner said.
Edwards made 7-of-10 fouls shots and collected eight rebounds in 32 minutes of play. Hammonds was 11-of-20 from the floor with two 3’s and finished with nine rebounds. Donnell Gresham Jr. added 13 points for the Bulldogs.
“It’s a big win for us,” said Hammonds, who is 3-0 against Tech. “As a team, I have never lost to them and I don’t want to lose to them. That's the main focus. We know it’s a rivalry game, a hard-fought game, so you have to have the mindset to be ready to battle against a great team.”
After shooting 41.9% in the first half to build a 35-27 lead, the Bulldogs made four of their first five shots to open the second half and shoot ahead by 16 points, 49-33. Tech would get within six twice, at the 11:08 mark and in the final minute.
Georgia missed its first eight shots of the game but used a 13-2 run over the final 5:02 of the first half to forge a 35-27 halftime lead. The Bulldogs did it without a significant contribution from their prized player.
Edwards took only three shots in the first half and missed them all. His two points came on a pair of foul shots at the 8:17 mark. He played just over 14 minutes and had two fouls.
Hammonds was the only Bulldog getting anything done on offense. He scored 19 on 8-of-11 shooting, including 2-of-3 from 3-point range. No other Georgia player made more than one shot.
Tech was equally one-dimensional in the first half. The Jackets got 14 points from Devoe on 5-of-8 shooting. Where they were especially deficient was the foul line, where they missed on seven of 10 tries. That contributed to a losing the eight-point lead they had at the 9:20 mark, when the game devolved into a bunch of free throws.
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