ATHENS -- Noah Baumann missed a game-winning shot in the final seconds as Georgia basketball fell to East Tennessee State 86-84 Wednesday night at Stegeman Coliseum.

The USC transfer was 6-of-8 shooting from 3-point range prior to the shot. With 8.4 seconds to go and down by 1 point, Aaron Cook passed the ball to an open Baumann on the baseline, who missed the shot off the back iron.

“I was wide open, it was either me or (Aaron Cook), really,” Baumann said. “I had an open shot and I was hot. It felt really good, it looked really good, it didn’t fall, so what can you do?”

The Bulldogs (5-7) stuck closely behind the Buccaneers (8-5) for most of the first half. A 10-3 East Tennessee State run to close the half put Georgia down 48-39 at the break.

The Bulldogs slowly chipped away at the Buccaneer lead in the second half, finally pulling within one possession at the 8 minute-mark. A bruising Aaron Cook layup gave Georgia its first lead of the second half.

The point guard took a more commanding lead at the 7:40 mark with an fast break three-point play to put the Bulldogs up 71-67.

“We made an adjustment to try and trap those guards to try and contain them coming off of ball screens because that’s where they were really hurting us was,” Cook said. “Jabri (Abdur-Rahim) got the steal, threw it ahead to me.”

East Tennessee State battled back, though, and a David Sloan fadeaway 3-pointer put the Buccaneers ahead 85-84 with less than 10 seconds on the clock.

Georgia was outscored 12-2 in the final three minutes of the loss.

“I think we were in the bonus at the 11:13 mark of the second half and we needed to get to the free throw line a lot and times we did, but at times we didn’t take advantage of it the way we could,” UGA coach Tom Crean said.

“The biggest thing to me is that we’ve got to have a 40-minute game of locked in defensive intensity.”

Baumann led the way for Georgia offensively with 25 points and 7 rebounds. He started his third straight game in place of star forward Jailyn Ingram, who tore his ACL earlier this month.

Kario Oquendo and Cook also had strong outings for Georgia. Oquendo scored 15 points and pulled down 3 rebounds. Cook added 17 points and dished out 6 assists of his own.

Sloan led the Buccaneers with 24 points and 4 assists.

Georgia will play host to Gardner-Webb at 7 p.m. on December 29 at Stegeman Coliseum.