Tennessee’s Scotty Hopson and Tobias Harris combined for 50 points against SEC foe Georgia on Saturday. But even that dynamic duo wasn’t enough to keep the Bulldogs from heading back to Athens with a victory.
Despite clawing its way back from a 15-point, first-half deficit, Tennessee failed to keep Georgia at bay in the waning moments of Saturday’s contest and fell to the visiting Bulldogs 69-63 at Thompson-Boling Arena in UT’s OUTLIVE game for cancer awareness.
Hopson set a career-high with 32 points on 12-of-19 shooting, with Harris notching 18 points for Tennessee (16-11, 6-6 SEC), which played in front of a UT crowd donning white OUTLIVE T-shirts. But the box score was noticeably lopsided, as no other Vol scored more than three points.
Jeremy Price led Georgia (18-8, 7-5) with 20 points.
“We play better when everybody contributes,” UT coach Bruce Pearl said. “Right now, offensively Tobias and Scotty are looking aggressive. The rest are looking tentative.”
The Bulldogs started the contest on an offensive tear. After Harris knocked down a 3-pointer at the 16:50 mark to give the Vols a 7-5 lead, Georgia staged a 17-0 run for a commanding 22-7 lead capped by a Sherrard Brantley trey with 10:15 left in the first half.
A Hopson layup with nine minutes left in the first period halted Georgia’s run and ended seven minutes of scoreless play for the Vols.
“Georgia started the game like they were playing for their NCAA tournament lives,” Pearl said. “And we played like we were already in the field.
“You can’t spot a good team with that kind of a lead.”
Despite the deficit, Tennessee gradually whittled the Bulldog lead down before halftime. A Hopson floater left UT down only seven at intermission, 33-25.
Hopson led the Vols with 11 points at halftime. Tennessee allowed Georgia to hit 52 percent from the field in the first period, while it only converted on 28 percent of its own shots.
“I think we were out there settling for too many jump shots at the beginning instead of attacking their defense,” Harris said. “When we start attacking their defense, that’s when the game opened up.”
The attacking came in the second half with an offense led largely by Hopson, who scored 21 of his 32 points after halftime. The Vols caught up with Georgia on a Steven Pearl layup to tie the game 43-43 with 11:58 remaining before a Melvin Goins steal and dunk two possessions later gave UT its first lead since the 16:50 mark in the first half at 45-43.
But the Vols couldn’t close out the game in the waning moments. A Travis Leslie layup and free throw with 3:37 left gave the Bulldogs a 59-52 lead. UT never crept closer than two points from there.
“At times we know how to close out games, and at times we don’t,” Hopson said. “They got the ball to the rim and either got fouled or got the bucket.
“Georgia definitely played like the tougher team today. They outmanned us.”
Pearl said the scoring discrepancy on the Tennessee roster was too obvious to ignore.
“You either have it or you don’t,” Pearl said. “I told the team, ‘If you got more, it’s time.’ If this is it, then we’re going to have a hard time beating teams on our schedule.”
The Vols have only four regular-season games remaining, two of which are on the road. Tennessee visits Vanderbilt on Tuesday, and Hopson said the time is now for the Vols to step up.
“Were definitely not representing Tennessee basketball well,” Hopson said. “It’s going to be even tougher on the road. It gets tougher from here on out.”
