Michael Cunningham: Effort isn't among Georgia's regrets in loss to top-ranked Auburn

Michael Cunningham, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Jan 18, 2025

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ATHENS, Ga. — The scene at Stegeman Coliseum on Saturday has become routine lately. Georgia students were lined up around the corner more than an hour before the game, waiting to get in. Bulldogs football coach Kirby Smart was in the building. They came to see the Bulldogs treat No. 1 Auburn like they did then-No. 6 Kentucky and No. 17 Oklahoma.

They might have gotten their wish if Asa Newell put a little more oomph on his last shot. Or if the Bulldogs didn’t miss 10 free throws, not counting the one they missed on purpose to give themselves a chance at the end. Or if Georgia coach Mike White had ordered his players to start fouling earlier to extend the game.

No. 23 Georgia might regret some things after the 70-68 loss to the best team in the country. Effort isn’t one of them. The Bulldogs pushed the Tigers until the final buzzer. They trailed by nine points with 41 seconds left but still had a chance to tie. Newell’s alley-oop shot from the paint hit the front of the rim before falling off as time expired.

“Just came up short,” Newell said. “Great look. (We) had a great opportunity. A lot of great fight at the end.”

The Bulldogs (14-4, 2-3) still have just two Quad 1 victories. The NCAA tournament selection committee puts a premium on those. But Georgia followed a 74-56 loss at No. 6 Tennessee on Tuesday with a much better performance against another great league opponent. Auburn (17-1, 5-0) now has won 10 straight games since losing at No. 3 Duke on Dec. 3.

The Bulldogs came closer to beating Auburn than any of those 10 opponents. That’s something.

“That’s not the way I feel right now,” White said. “I don’t’ know if our guys feel that way, either. But there are some positives, especially our resilience.”

White said the Bulldogs looked “dead in the water” while falling behind 24-8 after 11 minutes. They got the deficit down to a point in the second half but never took the lead. Georgia trailed 69-60 with 41 seconds to go. Auburn took the ball out of bounds with a 70-67 lead and nine seconds left.

Georgia’s Dakota Leffew stole the inbounds pass and ran to the corner to shoot a 3-pointer. He missed, but teammate Tyrin Lawrence got the rebound and was fouled with 0.6 seconds left. Lawrence made the first free throw and purposely missed the second. Auburn knocked the loose ball out of bounds under the basket with 0.3 seconds to go.

Silas Demary lobbed a perfect pass to Newell, who got the shot off in time.

“I feel like this team is really good at handling adversity,” Newell said. “We just have a lot of fight in us. We had a great opportunity to win, but we just came up short.”

The Bulldogs might have had more time with a different end-game strategy from White.

Newell’s basket with 1:27 to go trimmed Auburn’s lead to 65-60. Georgia could have put the Tigers at the free-throw line by fouling twice. White chose to let it play out. Auburn ran 25 seconds off the clock before calling timeout, then drew a shooting foul with 56 seconds to go.

Said White: “We fouled earlier than we normally do ... The way we executed down the stretch, I wouldn’t take anything back. Our decisions on trapping vs. fouling were right on point.”

The Tigers ended up escaping with the victory. They played without their best player, center Johni Broome (ankle). He averages 17.9 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game. The Tigers routed No. 15 Mississippi State at home on Tuesday without Broome. They also didn’t need him to beat the Bulldogs.

Auburn freshman Tahaad Pettiford picked up the scoring slack with a season-high 24 points. He made five of seven 3-point tries. Former McEachern standout Dylan Cardwell made up for Broome’s absence in the middle. He had six of Auburn’s 15 offensive rebounds and four blocked shots in 22 minutes.

“Credit Auburn,” White said. “Without Johni Broome, they are still a very, very good team.”

Georgia will have plenty more chances to earn quality victories. The final 13 games on the schedule include six opponents currently ranked in the top 15 of the AP poll. The Bulldogs will play at No. 5 Florida, No. 4 Alabama. They have a rematch at Auburn, followed by a game here vs. Florida. Then comes the SEC tournament in Nashville, Tenn.

Right now, the Bulldogs looks like a second-tier team in the nation’s best conference. That could end up being enough to end their NCAA tourney drought at nine years. The efforts against Kentucky and Auburn suggest the Bulldogs can be even better.

“Auburn’s got a bunch of winning experience and we hope to be a team that’s the same over time,” White said. “Who knows when that is? We hope this team can reach their ceiling. There are a few things we could have done better, of course. But when you’re playing some of the best teams in the country, your warts are exposed a little bit.”

Effort isn’t among Georgia’s faults. Ask the Tigers about that. The Bulldogs kept coming at them until Newell’s shot came up just short.

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