ATHENS – Georgia basketball’s best chance to stop its losing streak might arrive on Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs (14-11, 4-8 SEC) will try to snap their six-game skid and leave Music City on a high note with a win at Vanderbilt at 8:30 p.m. The struggling Commodores (7-18, 2-9) could offer a palate cleanse of sorts for UGA after a particularly frustrating home loss for coach Mike White.
“We did some stuff tonight that you could say (is) out of character, but when you’re saying that as often as we’re saying it, unfortunately, that’s our character right now,” White said after the 88-82 loss to Florida on Saturday.
White had plenty of reason to be frustrated after the Bulldogs blew another halftime lead, committing 10 turnovers in the final 20 minutes.
Vanderbilt, sitting at No. 13 in the SEC and averaging a league-worst 66.3 points, knows the feeling. The Commodores are one of two SEC teams with a lower shooting percentage than Georgia at 39.3 percent.
The Bulldog attack certainly seems to match up well against Vanderbilt’s defense, which ranks last in the conference in opponent 3-point percentage.
Georgia enters the game as the SEC’s No. 5 team in 3-pointers (8.2) and 3-point percentage (34.7).
Trigger-happy guard Noah Thomasson will look to build on his recent success from behind the arc. The Niagara transfer has shot an impressive 16 of 36 from 3-point range over the last five games.
Thomasson was 5-of-11 shooting from deep on Saturday, leading the Bulldogs with 26 points.
Thomasson, now in his fifth year of collegiate basketball, has played for four different programs. The graduate student understands the struggles of rebuilding programs better than most.
“It’s real frustrating just because we obviously want to win every single game,” Thomasson said on Saturday. “We’re a new team. At times, you can tell, just that we’re still learning how to put together a full 40-minute game.”
The Bulldogs, who enter as 1.5-point favorites, will try to snap a four-game losing streak to Vanderbilt.