NASHVILLE — Georgia (14-16) completed a dominant day for the Eastern Division Thursday evening by riding Trey Thompkins (23 points, 14 rebounds) and Travis Leslie (21 points) to a 77-64 win over Arkansas (14-18) in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Basketball Tournament at the Bridgestone Center. Georgia, which finished dead last in the SEC East, joined Florida and Tennessee from the SEC East as winners from the division.
The Bulldogs, who won the SEC Tournament in 2008 in an improbable run after finishing dead last in the SEC East, advanced to the second round of the tournament, where they will face Vanderbilt, the #2 team from the SEC East (9:45 p.m. Friday), but knocking off the #3 team from the West Division. Of the four teams from the SEC West to play Thursday, only Alabama advanced with a win over SEC East #5 South Carolina while LSU and Auburn were sent packing.
Perhaps the key play for Georgia was a buzzer-beating three-pointer from Ricky McPhee, who launched from nearly 30-feet out as the half came to an end to send the Bulldogs into halftime leading 41-32.
“We knew it was a good sign because I don’t think we hit a [buzzer-beater] all season,” Leslie said. “I was excited and knew it was a sign of things to come.”
Georgia rode the momentum of McPhee’s three-ball out of the locker to score on their first possession of the second half when Jeremy Price scored on the inside to make it 43-32.
Arkansas battled back from that deficit to cut Georgia’s lead to three (52-49) with 10:22 remaining in the game on a pair of free throws by Michael Washington, who led the Razorbacks with 20 points but Thompkins scored eight of Georgia’s next 12 points as the Bulldogs pushed the lead back to nine (64-55).
Arkansas got four straight points from Courtney Fortson to get back to a more manageable four-point margin but Georgia pounded the ball inside to Thompkins who scored, got fouled and then hit the free throw with 5:08 to go to give Georgia a 67-59 lead.
Arkansas never got closer than six points the rest of the game.
Georgia held the Razorbacks to 38.8 percent from the field and just 1-12 from the three-point line. Georgia players credited their defensive intensity with the victory.
“We just knew that we had given up a lot of games early in the year on defense,” said Georgia’s Dustin Ware. “We knew if we were going to pull this one out we were going to have to play good defense.”
Georgia also got it done on the boards, outrebounding the Razorbacks, 45-28, with Thompkins leading the way with 14. It was the tenth double-double of the season for Thompkins. In addition to his 21 points, Leslie also grabbed six rebounds and Chris Barnes came off the bench to grab seven.
Ware and McPhee added 10 points each for Georgia.
In addition to Washington’s 20 points for Arkansas, Fortson added 16 and freshman Marshawn Powell scored 10.