It’s a shame that those two Kentucky games, one in Athens and the other in Nashville, were lost. Throw the Xavier game in there, too. Those three games were the difference between a three-or-four seed and an eight seed for Georgia. Get that three-or-four seed and you don’t run into a team like Carolina until the Regional…and you’ve got fresher legs and a couple of confidence-building wins under your belt. It’s a shame because this year’s edition of the Lady Bulldogs was…no question…a Sweet Sixteen-caliber team.
As it turned out, however, Georgia wound up with an eight seed. And eighth-seeded teams have a way of running into buzzsaws in the second round. It was thrilling in the first half to watch an effective gameplan pay dividends as the Lady Bulldogs frustrated the Tarheels by forcing them to play a lot of half-court offense. In fact, watching Georgia turn a a nine-point deficit into a seven-point lead just before halftime was arguably the high point of the entire season. Unfortunately, the turnover bug started to bite again…and Carolina was able to re-seize momentum and the lead after twenty minutes.
The Tarheels came out blazing in the second half with a Tennessee-like opening-five-minute blitzkrieg, pushing their lead into double-digits. The Lady Bulldogs, of course, kept fighting and actually whittled the Carolina lead to only seven points with six minutes left to play. But the lead, the turnovers, the foul trouble, and the attrition were finally all too much to overcome on this night. The season came to an end.
Tasha and Megan, playing their last game as Lady Bulldogs, led Georgia scorers with 20 and 14 points, respectively. Tasha added 10 boards to exit the stage, fittingly, with one last double-double. Angel finished just one rebound shy of her own double-double, scoring 11 points. Ashley and Angela each scored 9 points, including some big-time three-pointers…with Ash also dishing out eight assists on the night.
Click here for the official game recap with a link to the box score.
(Photo courtesy of Georgia Sports Communications)
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