LSU – 47, Georgia – 41. The Lady Bulldogs (16-5, 6-2 in SEC play) dropped their second straight conference game this afternoon in Baton Rouge. Georgia spotted LSU an early lead and spent the entire game chasing…but never quite catching…the Lady Tigers. The Lady Dawgs cut the LSU lead down to a single point a couple of minutes into the second half…but then it was drought time as Georgia shot blanks on ten straight possessions that would’ve tied the game or taken the lead in a little over five minutes. You usually like your chances when you hold the other guys under 50 points…but, for the second consecutive game, the Lady Bulldogs just couldn’t knock down that big momentum-shifting shot to key a Georgia run. Jasmine Hassell was the only Lady Bulldog to score in double-digits, finishing with 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Other than Jazz’s performance, not much went right for the Lady Dawgs on offense…with Georgia only shooting 29% from the field as Po’, J.J., Anne Marie, Meredith, and Khaalidah combined for a lamentable 6-of-38 shooting performance. That’s not going to win very many games in the SEC…no matter what you hold the other team to.

Still, there’s no need to reach for the panic button. The good news is that the Lady Dawgs are headed home for three straight games. The first of those three is this Thursday night versus Arkansas. We’ll have a Georgia/Arkansas preview posted right here sometime during the day on Wednesday.

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

Georgia vs. LSU at the Maravich Assembly Center. Like we said the other night…not exactly where you want to play if you’re trying to bounce back from a tough loss. This won’t be easy. Even though LSU (14-8, 4-4 in SEC play) isn’t the dominating force we all remember from the Seimone Augustus/Sylvia Fowles days, they’re still LSU. They still have a card-carrying Legend with a capital “L,” Van Chancellor, calling the shots and they still have the mystique of “The Pete” working in their favor (Georgia is only 6-7 in games played at the Maravich Center). LSU always packs the house when Georgia comes to town…with tomorrow being LSU’s “Pink Out” game to benefit breast cancer research and with ESPN2 being in the house, the Lady Bulldogs (16-4, 6-1 in SEC play) will have plenty of challenges in addition to a tall, deep, athletic Lady Tiger team with which to contend. But…that’s life in the SEC, Fastbreakers. It’s time for the first big character test of the season.

Georgia and LSU will hit the court at 5:00 PM (Eastern) tomorrow afternoon in Baton Rouge. The game can be seen live nationally on ESPN2 (check your local cable/satellite listings for channel). We’ll have a Georgia/LSU game recap and web links posted right here a couple of hours after the final horn.

Click here for the official Georgia/LSU game notes.

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

Click here to see the complete Lady Tiger roster.

South Carolina – 57, Georgia – 48. Well…bummer. This would’ve been a good one to get…but the Lady Bulldogs (16-4, 6-1 in SEC play) saw their six-game winning streak in conference competition come to an end tonight in Columbia. Two points separated the Lady Dawgs and Gamecocks at halftime and neither team looked capable of making a run to put the game away until the final five minutes. That’s when Carolina scored 14 of the game’s final 21 points to seal the deal. J.J. bounced back in a big way from her injury-impaired short performance against Mississippi State Sunday, scoring 15 points and grabbing a half-dozen rebounds. Po’ finished with 10 points and 9 boards, just missing a double-double. The challenge now for the Lady Bulldogs will be to make this loss a one-and-done situation. We’ve seen in the past couple of seasons how that first SEC loss has had a troubling tendency to cause a bit of a tailspin. Georgia is still in the midst of a stretch of very winnable SEC games. This isn’t the time for a losing streak…especially as wide-open as the race for those four coveted first-round SEC Tournament byes is shaping up to be.

Baton Rouge isn’t on anybody’s list of favorite places to go to bounce back from a tough loss…but that’s what the Lady Bulldogs will attempt to do this Sunday as they take on LSU in a nationally televised (ESPN2) showdown. We’ll have a Georgia/LSU preview posted right here sometime during the day on Saturday.

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

No movement at the top of the national polls…in fact, the top five in both major polls remain unchanged for the third straight week…but our Lady Bulldogs made a major move in both polls. Georgia moved into the Top-20 in the Associated Press media poll and they finally got a little love from the nation’s coaches, checking in at number-24 in the ESPN/USA Today poll. Here’s a look at this week’s top five in both major national polls and Georgia’s rankings:

AP

1. Baylor

2. Connecticut

3. Duke

4. Stanford

5. Tennessee

20. GEORGIA

ESPN/USA TODAY

1. Baylor

2. Connecticut

3. Duke

4. Stanford

5. Texas A&M

24. GEORGIA

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

Didn’t we just play this game a few weeks ago? That’s right…it’s the first rematch of the season as the Lady Bulldogs take to the floor tomorrow night in Columbia for another chicken fight with the Gamecocks. Georgia (16-3, 6-0 in SEC play), as you remember, opened SEC competition with a 61-51 win over South Carolina (11-9, 3-4 SEC) at home back on January 2. You better know that Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley will have a scheme in place to shut down everything that went right for Georgia that day. It’ll be up to the Lady Bulldogs to adapt in order to stay undefeated in league play and to protect their perch atop the SEC standings. Carolina’s gone 3-3 in SEC play since they were here in Athens…that’s not exactly setting the league on fire, but it does include a home win over LSU. It’s never easy to play somebody more than once during the course of a season…so absolutely nothing can be taken for granted about tomorrow night’s game. It should be fun.

Georgia and South Carolina will tip-off at 7:00 PM (Eastern) tomorrow night at the Colonial Life Arena in downtown Columbia, SC. No TV or internet broadcast for this one…so you’ll need to cross state lines or tune into your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station. We’ll have a Georgia/South Carolina recap and game links posted right here sometime late tomorrow night.

Click here for the official Georgia/South Carolina game notes.

Here’s a link to the South Carolina women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Gamecock roster.

Georgia – 78, Mississippi State – 58. Don’t get me wrong…the last-minute victories and the come-from-behind wins are nice enough and great fun…but weren’t you about ready for the Lady Bulldogs to just come out blazing and roll somebody up? Well, after a tentative first seven minutes or so, Georgia did exactly that today versus Mississippi State. They doubled-up the score on the (other) Lady Bulldogs by halftime (40-20) and never looked back, ultimately winning by that same twenty-point margin. Anne Marie brought some firepower from off the bench, leading four Lady Bulldog double-digit scorers with 17 points. Po’ (16 points, 11 rebounds) and Ronika, in a breakout performance (12 points, 10 rebounds) each went double-double on the stat sheet. Khaalidah scored 13 points, 11 of them coming during Georgia’s big push to that 20-point halftime lead. Best of all, this was a game in which no Lady Bulldog was forced to play all 40 minutes. In fact, not one member of Georgia’s veteran core of scorers (Po’, J.J., Jasmine, Meredith, and Anne Marie) even played as much as 30 minutes. Keeping everybody on the roster fresh and healthy will be key from here on out, as the SEC schedule moves into high gear.

Speaking of the SEC grind…two big road games next week. The first one is Thursday night in Columbia as the Lady Bulldogs throw down with South Carolina for the second time this season. We’ll have a Georgia/South Carolina preview posted right here sometime Tuesday evening.

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

Here’s a little tidbit that might’ve slipped your attention in the immediate aftermath of last Sunday afternoon’s improbable come-from-behind win over Florida: The head coach of the Gators, Amanda Butler, called Stegeman Coliseum “a tough environment.” How awesome is that? Last week, the call went out to pack the Coliseum for our Lady Bulldogs and 5,000 of you heeded the call. Let’s do better this Sunday. We’re FSN’s SEC Game of the Week tomorrow…let’s represent the Lady Bulldog Nation with pride and numbers. We’ll even set the bar low…how about 6,000? Do you think our 24th-ranked Lady Dawgs deserve a thousand more fans than last Sunday? Then there’s no doubt where you’ll be tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 PM. That’s when Georgia returns to action against the (other) Lady Bulldogs of Mississippi State (8-9, 0-5 in SEC play). Please make a special note of that 3:00 PM starting time…that’s an hour later than Sunday afternoon home games have been starting this season. See you there!

Georgia and Mississippi State are set for a 3:00 PM tip-off tomorrow afternoon at Stegeman Coliseum. If you can’t make it out to the game in person, you can catch it live on Fox Sports Net (check your local listings for channel). We’ll have a Georgia/Mississippi State recap, game links, and exclusive photos posted right here sometime tomorrow evening.

Click here for the official Georgia/Mississippi State Game notes.

Here’s a link to the Mississippi State women’s basketball page.

Click here for the complete (other) Lady Bulldog roster.

Georgia – 60, Alabama – 51. This game was far from a masterpiece. In fact, in the first half, it looked like for long stretches that neither team was particularly geeked-up about winning it. But while they didn’t have to come from behind as they did against Florida this past Sunday, the Lady Bulldogs for a second straight game found a spark in the second half. Aided by an poor shooting performance by the Crimson Tide, the Lady Dawgs found their shooting touch after the halftime intermission and opened up a 18-point lead on a couple of occasions. The Tide were able to whittle the lead down to single digits in garbage time…but the bottom line is that Georgia is headed back to Stegeman Coliseum this weekend with a sparkling 5-0 record in SEC play (15-3 overall.) Khaalidah led all Lady Bulldog scorers with 12 points while Meredith (10 points, 9 rebounds) and Po’ (8 points, 11 rebounds) just missed out on double-doubles. Anne Marie finished with eight points and eight boards, giving Georgia an offensive lift with a hot second-half shooting streak. So this one wasn’t really a close game…and it wasn’t really a blowout, either…but it was a road win against a conference opponent. That’s a good night’s work by any definition.

The Lady Dawgs will be back home this Sunday afternoon (3:00 PM) to take on Mississippi State at the Coliseum. We’ll have a Georgia/Mississippi State preview posted right here sometime Friday evening.

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

The nation’s coaches are apparently still not quite convinced yet, but the media is coming around. Georgia returned to the national rankings this week, checking in at number-24 in the AP poll, conducted by the national women’s basketball press. The Lady Dawgs are still unranked in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll…but that’s nothing a couple of wins tonight and Sunday won’t take care of. Here’s a look at this week’s top five in both major national polls (and, where applicable, Georgia’s ranking):

AP

1. Baylor

2. Connecticut

3. Duke

4. Stanford

5. Tennessee

24. GEORGIA

ESPN/USA TODAY

1. Baylor

2. Connecticut

3. Duke

4. Stanford

5. Texas A&M

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

Your 24th-ranked (AP) Lady Bulldogs make an Alabama getaway tomorrow night when they travel across the border to tangle with the Tide. Georgia is, of course, flying high right now. The Lady Dawgs have won their first four SEC contests, with half of those wins coming on the road versus nationally ranked opponents. The Tide, on the other hand, have yet to win in conference play (0-5, SEC. 11-7, overall) and only one of those games, a 57-53 loss to Arkansas over the weekend, was lost by single digits. But we all know that you can never sleep on an SEC opponent…especially in their gym. A poor shooting or rebounding night can doom any team in this league under any circumstance. A 5-0 SEC start is out there for the taking..if the Lady Bulldogs show up ready to get after it.

Georgia and Alabama are set for a 9:00 PM (Eastern) tip-off tomorrow night in beautiful, scenic Tuscaloosa. The game can be seen live by CSS cable subscribers (check your local listings for the channel) or you can catch all the action on your computer via ESPN3 (www.espn3.com). We’ll have a Georgia/Alabama recap and game links posted right here sometime late Thursday night or Friday morning.

Click here for the official Georgia/Alabama game notes.

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

Click here to see the complete Crimson Tide roster.