The Lady Bulldogs…tan, rested, and ready after a week in sunny L.A….return to Stegeman Coliseum tomorrow night to take on the Golden Eagles of Southern Miss. Georgia’s West Coast Swing got off to a shaky start with a loss at USC, but the Lady Dawgs righted the ship quickly with wins on consecutive nights against Denver and Loyola Marymount and won a holiday tournament in the process. It seems like losses had a way of coming in twos and threes the last couple of seasons…so it was especially satisfying to see the USC loss become a “one and done” deal. Southern Miss (3-2) comes to town on the heels of a 19-point thumping at the hands of Kentucky this past Saturday. Now it’s up to the Lady Dawgs to give the Lady Eagles another grim reminder of what SEC basketball is all about. One-dollar admission coupons are available for tomorrow night’s game (see link below), so load up the car and let’s welcome the Lady Bulldogs back to town with a loud and rowdy crowd.

Georgia and Southern Miss are set for a 7:00 PM tip-off tomorrow night at Stegeman Coliseum. We’ll have a game recap, links, and exclusive photos posted right here sometime late Wednesday night.

Click here for the official Georgia/Southern Miss game notes.

Here’s a link to the Southern Miss women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Golden Eagle roster.

Print your one-dollar admission coupon by clicking here. 

With a convincing, never-really-in-doubt 76-44 win over Loyola Marymount tonight, our Lady Bulldogs are your 2010 Courtyard By Marriott Los Angeles Westside Thanksgiving Classic champions. (It’s going to be so nice to never have to type that unwieldy tournament name again, by the way.) For the second straight night, the Lady Dawgs took their height advantage over an opponent and exploited it relentlessly as they scored almost at will inside and dominated the boards. Porsha turned in her second double-double performance (15 points, 10 rebounds) in as many nights and  was named the tournament’s  most valuable player. Khaalida had the finest night of her young Lady Bulldog career with 15 points in 15 minutes, shooting 7-of-9 from the field. Jasmine Hassell, who was named to the all-tournament team along with Porsha, added ten points and Anne Marie extended her recent scoring hot streak with ten points of her own. Loyola Marymount scored the game’s first basket from downtown to take a 3-0 lead…only to see Georgia rattle off 15 unanswered points and pretty much put the game away early. The Lady Bulldogs extended the lead to 21 points by halftime and that was basically that.

Georgia moves to 5-1 on the season as they now head back to Athens for a date with Southern Miss at Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday night. We’ll have a Georgia/Southern Miss preview posted sometime during the day on Monday. All in all, between a tournament championship for the Lady Dawgs and a big football win over Georgia Tech, not a bad weekend in the the Bulldog Nation so far. Enjoy the rest of it, Fastbreakers.

Click here for the official Georgia/Loyola Marymount recap and a link to the stats and box score.

And how was your Thanksgiving, Fastbreakers? Well, this is exactly how we hoped “Black Friday” would wrap up…with us talking about a big win tonight and playing again tomorrow night. The Lady Bulldogs are halfway to becoming Courtyard By Marriott Los Angeles Westside Thanksgiving Classic champions after a dominating 73-51 victory over Denver earlier this evening. As was pointed out right here in yesterday’s game preview, Georgia came into this game with a bit of a size advantage over the Pioneers. The Lady Dawgs exploited that advantage almost at will tonight, pounding the ball down low to Jasmine Hassell (who equaled her career scoring high with 22 points to lead all Georgia scorers) and Porsha (who went double-double…again…with 18 points and 11 boards) for high-quality inside looks. J.J. (17 points) and Anne Marie (8 points) helped create space to operate down low by combining to go 5-of-9 on three-pointers. Those numbers translated into Georgia’s first 50-plus percent shooting game of the season and a big bounce-back win after a hard-fought loss at USC Tuesday night.

Tonight’s victory means that the Lady Dawgs now go on to face tournament hosts Loyola Marymount in the championship game tomorrow night (6:00 PM, EST). Ordinarily, we’d be telling you to tune into your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station for tomorrow night’s game. But, as you may know, there’s a football game tomorrow night that the Bulldog Nation has something of a rooting interest in. Locally (in Athens), that means the Georgia/Loyola Marymount game will be heard on AM 1340 WGAU…as for the rest of the state, there’s a distinct possibility that tomorrow night’s Lady Bulldog basketball game might be pre-empted in favor of Georgia/Georgia Tech football pre-game coverage in your area. Check your local radio listings in the sports section for details. As for your official Fastbreak Club weblog, we’ll have a Georgia/Loyola Marymount recap and game links posted right here sometime late tomorrow night.

Click here for the official Georgia/Denver recap and a link to the stats and box score.

Here’s a link to the Loyola Marymount women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Lion roster.

The holiday tournament. It’s a Thanksgiving tradition…right up there with turkey, parades, bad football games, and family blowouts. Your typical holiday tournament is usually set up for the hosting team to emerge victorious…so maybe the Lady Dawgs will have their dander up a little bit for this weekend’s (deep breath) Courtyard By Marriott Los Angeles Westside Thanksgiving Classic (phew!) at Loyola Marymount. Loyola will take on Stephen F. Austin in the tournament opener with Georgia and Denver hooking up in the second game (Friday, 6:00 PM, EST). The winners of those two games will meet Saturday evening at 6:00 PM (EST) for the tournament championship. While you can never take any opponent lightly, especially on the road, the Lady Bulldogs have the chance to really put Tuesday night’s loss squarely behind them against Denver. The Pioneers are very young, a little bit undersized, and off to a scuffling 1-2 start. If the Lady Dawgs protect the ball and “D”-up, you have to like their chances of playing for the championship on Saturday.

We’ll have a Georgia/Denver recap, game links, and hopefully a preview of Saturday night’s tournament championship game posted right here sometime late Friday night.

In the meantime…Happy Thanksgiving, Fastbreakers!

Click here for a tournament overview. (Courtesy of Loyola Marymount.)

Here’s a link to the Denver women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Pioneer roster.

The Associated Press poll voters, a cross-section of the national women’s college basketball media establishment, elevated our Lady Bulldogs from #18 to #17 this week. (Keeping in mind, of course, that this week’s poll doesn’t take into account Georgia’s loss to USC last night.) Connecticut is, no surprise, number-one…but it is somewhat surprising…and kind of ludicrous…that the Huskies aren’t a unanimous choice for the AP’s top spot. One writer, no doubt based somewhere in North Carolina, decided to toss one first-place vote to #6 Duke. Go figure. Here’s this week’s AP top five and Georgia’s ranking:

1. Connecticut

2. Baylor

3. Stanford

4. Tennessee

5. Xavier

17. GEORGIA

Click here to see the entire AP Top 25.

Southern Cal – 71, Georgia – 63. A very frustrating turn of events out on the coast last night for the Lady Bulldogs and all us Fastbreakers….though the game was incredibly fast-paced and entertaining. The Lady Dawgs jumped on the Women of Troy early and built a double-digit lead (19-8) in the first half. USC fought back to tie the game at 31 by halftime and took control of the game with a 20-3 second-half run. Georgia made a couple of late runs with some clutch three-pointers…but turnovers and missed free throws kept the Lady Bulldogs from establishing game-changing momentum. In the game’s final minutes, USC started knocking down their own big-time threes, keeping the lead just beyond Georgia’s reach.

This tough loss shouldn’t overshadow the fact that Porsha had one of the most dominant games on the boards by a Lady Bulldog in decades. Her 19 rebounds were the most by Georgia player in a game since Katrina McClain’s 22 versus Valdosta State in 1986. Po’ also scored 11 points for her third double-double of the young season. J.J. led all Georgia scorers with 17 points.

The Lady Bulldog West Coast Swing continues this holiday weekend with a stop at Loyola Marymount for the Courtyard By Marriott Los Angeles Westside Thanksgiving Classic. (Will they have room on the trophy for that long tournament name? Wow.) Georgia and Denver will meet in the tournament’s second game at 6:00 PM (EST) on Friday. We’ll have a Georgia/Denver preview posted right here sometime today.

Click here for the official Georgia/USC recap and a link to the stats and box score.

The AP media poll is running a little late this week for some reason…but the latest ESPN/USA Today coaches poll is out. Georgia is once again ranked 18th by the nation’s coaches and Connecticut, as expected, cemented their seemingly perennial number-one status by claiming every single first-place vote. Three other SEC teams are ranked alongside our Lady Bulldogs: Tennessee (#4), Kentucky (#9), and Vanderbilt (#22). Here’s a look at the ESPN/USA Today top five and Georgia’s ranking:

1. Connecticut

2. Stanford

3. Baylor

4. Tennessee

5. Xavier

18. GEORGIA

Click here to see the entire ESPN/USA Today Top 25.

There will be a new entrant in the so-called “Late Night Wars” on Tuesday night. Tomorrow night, you’ll have your choice of Jay, Dave, Conan…or our very own Georgia Lady Bulldogs. Make sure you put on some coffee (or grab some other “stimulating” beverage) and tune in to your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station at 10:00 PM (EST) as the Lady Dawgs do battle with Southern Cal’s Women of Troy. USC is 2-1, with wins over Gonzaga and Long Beach State. Their one loss was a 25-point drubbing by 6th-ranked Duke on Tobacco Road. Georgia, ranked 18th currently (pending the release of this week’s polls), will be looking to remain undefeated with a fourth straight victory. Nothing’s easy in the other guy’s gym, though…and this will be the very first road test for Georgia’s rookies.

We’ll have a Georgia/USC recap and game links posted right here sometime during the day on Wednesday. In the meantime, make sure you check back here tomorrow for this week’s national polls.

Click here for the official Georgia/USC game notes.

Here’s a link to the USC women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Women of Troy roster.

Georgia – 84, Indiana – 51. This was the stuff. This was the kind of game every Fastbreaker wanted to see before the Lady Bulldogs took off on their early-season California road trip. In this blowout of Indiana, as opposed to Georgia’s first two wins over Georgia Southern and Chattanooga, we finally got a look at what this team has the potential to bring to the table when all the wrinkles are ironed out. They might be a tad undersized and undermanned, but Georgia has a young, talented core that can flat-out get after it on a basketball court. We’re in for a treat watching these young athletes grow together and gel as a unit.

The issue was decided rather early on, with the Lady Dawgs jumping out to an early double-digits lead (15-5). From there, the defensive hammer came down even harder, forcing the Hoosiers into turnovers and ill-conceived, low-percentage field goal attempts. By the final buzzer, every active Lady Bulldog on the roster had scored and Georgia topped the 80-point plateau for the first time this season. It won’t be the last.

J.J. had her finest game of the young season, scoring 21 points while going 7-of-11 from the field. Anne Marie set a new career-high with 15 points and Jasmine Hassell added ten points for a trio of double-digit scorers for the Lady Bulldogs. As mentioned earlier, the Lady Dawgs will now head out to California for a game at USC on Tuesday night at 10:00 PM (EST) before moving on to Loyola Marymount for a holiday tournament next weekend. We’ll have a Georgia/USC preview posted right here sometime tomorrow evening.

Click here for the official Georgia/Indiana recap and a link to the stats and box score.

After a headline performance on Friday night, the Lady Bulldogs take back to the stage less than 48 hours later for a Sunday afternoon matinee co-starring the Indiana Hoosiers. Indiana comes to town sporting a 2-1 record. The Hoosiers opened their season with wins over Ball State and St. Bonaventure before losing at home to Memphis this past Thursday night. Our 18th-ranked and undefeated Lady Bulldogs, coming off a 10-point win over Chattanooga on Friday night, are looking for a third straight win at home before heading out to the left coast for a game at USC and to take part in a holiday tournament at Loyola Marymount. So it’s your last chance this month to come out to the Coliseum and make some racket for your Lady Bulldogs. One-dollar admission coupons are once again available for tomorrow’s game (see link below)…so let’s pack the house and help the Lady Dawgs get another home “W” before they embark on what should be an extremely interesting and challenging California road trip. See you there!

Georgia and Indiana will tip off at 2:00 PM tomorrow afternoon at Stegeman Coliseum. If you can’t join us in person, you can tune in to your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate, where J.D. and Jaleesa will be calling all the action. We’ll have a game recap, links, and exclusive Georgia/Indiana photos posted right here sometime Sunday evening.

Click here for the official Georgia/Indiana game notes.

Here’s a link to the Indiana women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Hoosier roster.

Print your one-dollar admission coupon by clicking here.