Georgia – 70, FIU – 65 (in the FIU Fun & Sun Classic consolation game) Unfortunately, I was out of radio range up in the mountains today…so I didn’t even get to listen to the Georgia/FIU game. So, as you can imagine, it was a treat to get home and see that the Lady Bulldogs pulled out a very tough win to put a little wind under their wings as they head home to open SEC play this Sunday with South Carolina. Rather than attempt to give impressions of a game that I missed, I’ll just refer you to the official recap below and we’ll set our sights on the Gamecocks. We’ll have a Georgia/South Carolina preview posted right here sometime during the day on Saturday.

In the meantime…Happy New Year, Fastbreakers!

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

Louisiana Tech – 77, Georgia – 62. Well, so much for fun and sun. The Lady Bulldogs will have to find a way to get fired up for playing in the consolation game of the FIU Fun & Sun Classic tomorrow afternoon as they dropped their opening tournament game to Louisiana Tech. Long story short, senior Lady Techster forward Adrienne Johnson owned this game, scoring 30 points and grabbing 11 boards for the double-double. J.J. led all Georgia scorers with 20 points. Tomorrow afternoon’s tournament consolation game versus Florida International will tip-off at 4:00 PM (Eastern) and can be heard on your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station. We’ll have a game recap and web links posted here shortly after the final buzzer. Here’s hoping the Lady Dawgs shake this one off, find a way to get a win tomorrow, and carry a little momentum into the SEC opener with South Carolina on Sunday.

Here’s a link to the Florida International women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Golden Panther roster.

Just how long has it been since the Lady Bulldogs last hooked up with Louisiana Tech? So long ago that Coach Frett went double-double in that particular game. That was 14 years ago. In the spirit of holiday reunion, the Lady Dawgs and the the Lady Techsters will catch up on old times tomorrow night when they meet in the second game of the FIU Fun & Sun Classic in Miami. Tournament host team Florida International and Marquette will play in the evening’s opening game, with the winners squaring off for the tournament championship on Thursday afternoon. LA Tech isn’t quite the perennial Final Four-threat juggernaut that we remember from the early nineties. The Lady Techsters haven’t made a deep run in the NCAA Tournament for quite a few years and they’ll take the floor tomorrow night sporting a 6-4 record (including a 15-point loss to LSU ten days ago). Still, this game will be as steeped in tradition between the two combatants as any December game in recent memory.

Georgia and LA Tech are tentatively set for an 8:00 PM (Eastern) tip time. Depending on the pace of the preceding FIU/Marquette game, the start could be delayed by a few minutes. Just tune into your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station around 8:00 and hang in there. We’ll have a Georgia/Louisiana Tech recap and game links posted right here sometime late tomorrow night.

Click here for the official Georgia/Louisiana Tech game notes.

Here’s a link to the Louisiana Tech women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Lady Techster roster.

As promised, here’s that Christmas surprise. If you attended this year’s Fastbreak Club Holiday Gathering, you remember this spirited performance. If not, here’s a taste of what you missed. Enjoy!

Here’s to the happiest of holidays, Fastbreakers. Be safe and have fun.

Well, it’s apparently going to take a few SEC wins to propel Georgia, unranked again this week, back onto the national polls. This week saw Baylor reclaim the nation’s number-two spot after a very tough week for Stanford. Of course Connecticut, coming off a week in which they won their 1,000th game in a row or something, is still your unanimous number-one team in both polls. Here are the top five from this week’s Associated Press and ESPN/USA TODAY polls (and, in all seriousness, congratulations to UConn for winning their record-setting 89th straight game this past week…just amazing):

AP

1. Connecticut

2. Baylor

3. Duke

4. Xavier

5. Tennessee

ESPN/USA TODAY

1. Connecticut

2. Baylor

3. Duke

4. Xavier

5. Texas A&M

Click here to see the entire top 25 in both major polls.

Georgia – 60, TCU – 57. Culminating a 7-0 final-minute Georgia run, Anne Marie nails the game-winning three-pointer from way downtown with less than two seconds left! Now that’s the kind of game that can build some momentum. The Lady Bulldogs played arguably their best all-around 20 minutes of the season in taking a 36-27 lead to the locker room at halftime. But the Horned Frogs stormed back in the second half and looked to be on the verge of putting the Lady Dawgs away with a six-point lead late in the game. But Georgia wouldn’t be denied. With 15.4 seconds left on the clock and the game tied at 57, the Lady Bulldogs brought the ball down the length of the court before Ann Marie launched her decisive three-point bomb from well behind the stripe. It found nothing but the bottom of the net and, after TCU’s desperation heave at the buzzer clanked off the backboard, Georgia had its biggest…and certainly its most dramatic…win of the season.

Anne Marie (who finished with 15 points) wasn’t the night’s only hero. Porsha dialed up another double-double (18 points and 14 rebounds) and J.J. added a dozen points. It was also another great night on the boards for the Lady Bulldogs as they out-rebounded TCU by a final margin of 43-24. Just a great win on the road against a quality opponent and it made for…no doubt…a very, very joyous flight home for the holidays.

After a short break for Christmas, the Lady Bulldogs will take their talents to South Beach as they travel to Miami for the FIU Fun & Sun Classic on December 29. It’ll be a classic match-up between two of the all-time great NCAA women’s basketball programs as the Lady Bulldogs take on Louisiana Tech in the tournament’s first game. We’ll have a Georgia/Louisiana Tech preview posted right here sometime on December 27th. Make sure to check back here tomorrow for this week’s national polls and keep your eyes open for a special holiday surprise that will be posted here sometime early on Christmas Eve.

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

Apologies for tomorrow night’s game preview being a day late. Your humble official Fastbreak Club blogger has two kids with the flu on the week of Christmas. ‘Nuff said. Anyway…The Lady Bulldogs are in Fort Worth right now for tomorrow night’s inter-conference showdown with Texas Christian University. As a Southern Gentleman, it’s hard for me to refer to young ladies as “Horned Frogs”…but that particular team name picked up considerable notoriety this past football season as TCU was in the BCS mix all season, eventually earning a Rose Bowl berth. The TCU women’s basketball team, like Georgia, started this season ranked in the polls…but they’ve dropped a few big games early (TCU currently stands at 6-5 overall) and fallen out of the national picture for now. These two teams won’t exactly be fighting for their lives, but both the Lady Dawgs and the (sigh) Horned Frogs have a lot riding on the outcome of tomorrow night’s game. It should be a good one.

Georgia and TCU will tip-off at 7:30 (Eastern) tomorrow night at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on the TCU campus. If you’re one of the lucky ones whose cable system carries the CSS network, you’ll be able to watch the game live. Otherwise, tune into your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station. We’ll have a Georgia/TCU recap posted right here either late Wednesday night or sometime Thursday morning.

Click here for the official Georgia/TCU game notes.

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

Click here to see the complete (ahem!) Horned Frog roster.

Georgia – 66, High Point – 61. Blame it on holiday miscommunication. You know how things can kinda get lost in the shuffle during the Christmas season? That’s the only possible explanation for High Point not getting the memo. You know…the memo telling the Panthers that they were expected to show up in Athens, take a double-digit beating, and then high-tail it back up to Carolina. In all seriousness, you really have to give it up for High Point today. They took the floor at Stegeman Coliseum and proceeded to give the Lady Bulldogs all they could handle in a game in which the outcome was in serious doubt until the waning seconds. Despite some ridiculous, lights-out shooting in the game’s opening half (with High Point finding nothing-but-net in their first five three-point attempts), Georgia wrested the lead away from the Panthers late in the first half and made some big stops down the stretch to escape with a 66-61 victory. Jasmine Hassell, posting-up seemingly at will, led all Georgia scorers with 16 points. J.J. was the only other Lady Dawg to score in double figures. She finished with 13 points and made a couple of dagger-like jumpers at the shot-clock buzzer in the final minutes to help put the game away for Georgia.

The Lady Bulldogs improve to 8-2 for the season and they’ll next take the court this Wednesday night when they tangle with TCU deep in the heart of Texas. We’ll have a Georgia/TCU preview posted right here sometime during the day tomorrow (Monday).

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

Now that final exams for this past semester are out of the way, the Lady Bulldogs will get back down to basketball business this Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum versus High Point. The Panthers are 6-5 this season and Georgia will be their second SEC opponent in the space of a month. (High Point lost to Arkansas three weeks ago at a holiday tournament in El Paso, Texas.) It’s the last home game of 2010…and the last one before SEC competition gets cranked up…so get dressed up in your holiday colors and enjoy some Lady Bulldog basketball this Sunday with a few thousand of your closest friends. One-dollar admission coupons are available…just click on the link below to print yours up. See you there!

Georgia and High Point will get things started at 2:00 PM this Sunday at Stegeman Coliseum. We’ll have a game recap, web links, and exclusive photos posted right here sometime Sunday evening.

Click here for the official Georgia/High Point game notes.

Here’s a link to the High Point women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Panther roster.

Print your one-dollar admission coupon by clicking here.

Despite being idle this past week, the Lady Bulldogs fell completely out of the Associated Press media poll (after being ranked 25th last week) while remaining unranked in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. And that’s pretty much all there is to say about that. It’s nothing that stringing a few wins together won’t take care of. In any event, here are the top five from this week’s major national polls:

AP

1. Connecticut

2. Baylor

3. Stanford

4. Duke

5. Xavier

ESPN/USA TODAY

1. Connecticut

2. Stanford

3. Baylor

4. Duke

5. Xavier