A surprising Notre Dame loss to West Virginia over the weekend sent a minor shockwave into the top five this week. The Irish dropped to fourth in both major polls and Connecticut moved up to second. Those undefeated Baylor Bears, who are simply steamrolling all opposition lately, are still your unanimous number-one team in all the land. The writers bumped the Lady Bulldogs up three spots from 21st to 18th this week…but our ladies made a huge jump in the ESPN/USA Today poll of the nation’s coaches. The coaches moved Georgia up a whopping five places, from 20th to 15th. And if you’re going to make big upward moves in the polls, this is most definitely the best time of year to do it.

Here’s a look at the top five in both national polls and Georgia’s ranking:

AP

1. Baylor

2. Connecticut

3. Stanford

4. Notre Dame

5. Duke

18. GEORGIA

ESPN/USA TODAY

1. Baylor

2. Connecticut

3. Stanford

4. Notre Dame

5. Duke

15. GEORGIA

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

So here we go. Another Thursday night…another massively huge game for our Lady Bulldogs. Georgia and South Carolina sport identical won-loss records right now (19-6 overall, 8-4 in SEC play) and the two teams are currently tied with Arkansas for third place in the conference. Lurking just behind those three are LSU and Vandy, one game behind with SEC records of 7-5. It would take more space here than I’m willing to fill here right now in order to explain the ramifications conference match-ups the rest of the way and subsequent tiebreaker possibilities. So let’s just tie an easy-to-understand bow around things: The Lady Dawgs need to win games. Period. That’s the best way to avoid having to worry about how everybody else is doing and how that might affect your standing. You win your games and you control your own destiny. It’ll be tough against a hot Carolina team that has won five of their last six, including the program’s first win against Tennessee since over a decade before any of the players on the current Gamecock roster were born. Hopefully there will be a lot of red-and-black in the stands since Columbia’s a relatively easy drive for much of the Lady Bulldog Nation. If you’re going, have a good time, make a lot of racket…and send me some game photos to post!

Georgia and South Carolina are set for a 7:00 PM tip-off time tomorrow night at the Colonial Life Arena in downtown Columbia. The game can be seen live on SportSouth (check your local cable/satellite listings for channel) or you can watch online at ESPN3.com. All you radio listeners can tune in to your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station and catch all the action with Jeff Dantzler. We’ll have a game recap and web 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.

This just in from the UGA Sports Communications Office:

ATHENS, GA – Georgia’s Anne Marie Armstrong (pictured), a 6-3, guard/forward from Norcross, GA, was tabbed as the Southeastern Conference’s Player of the Week on Monday after scoring a career-high 23 points in the Lady Bulldogs’ 76-63 win over Vanderbilt the previous day.

Armstrong connected on 11-of-16 shots from the floor and logged a career-high 40 minutes of playing time against the Commodores in Georgia’s only game over the past seven days.

Armstrong leads the Lady Bulldogs in scoring in SEC action at 13.8 points per game. She also paces Georgia both overall and in SEC play in rebounding, assists, steals and blocked shots.

In statistics for SEC games only, Armstrong ranks among the top-10 individual leaders in an SEC-best nine of 13 categories kept – No.  5 in scoring, assists and minutes played; No. 7 in assists-to-turnovers and blocked shots; No. 8 in rebounding, steals and defensive boards; and No. 9 in FG percentage.

Armstrong is Georgia’s second SEC Player of the Week honoree this season. Jasmine James was selected on Nov. 21 after averaging 13.3 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.3 assists and 2.7 steals in a trio of wins over Georgia Southern, College of Charleston and No. 23 Southern Cal.

All told, 21 different Lady Bulldogs have combined to secure SEC Player of the Week accolades 42 times since the award’s inception in 1985.

(Photo courtesy of Fastbreaker Bill Zachmann.)

The latest edition of “Quick Dish” at ESPN.com had some kind words for our own Anne Marie Armstrong, the Dance Dawgs and their moms, and the pink-clad crowd at Stegeman Coliseum that turned out in force for the Georgia/Vanderbilt game this past weekend. There’s a link below for the “Quick Dish” page…just click on that link and then look for the “Fourth-Annual Frenzies” sidebar column on the far right-hand side of the page. Our game and our ladies won the Frenzy for “Best Ensemble Cast.”

(Thanks to Fastbreaker Janice Garrett for sending in this link…)

Click here for the ESPN.com “Quick Dish” page featuring the Georgia/Vanderbilt game.

On a day when both teams were decked out in pink to commemorate the ongoing fight against breast cancer, our Lady Bulldogs left Vandy black and blue…picking up a crucial SEC win in the process. Georgia (now 19-6 overall, 8-4 in SEC play) jumped on the Commodores (19-6 overall, 7-5 in the SEC early) early, racing out an eight-point lead only minutes into the game. From there, a late first-half run extended to the Lady Bulldog lead to double digits by halftime (40-28). In what’s become something of a Georgia trademark in big wins this season, the Lady Dawgs found a way to slam the door shut every time the Commodores threatened to make a run in the second half. It seemed like for every Vandy surge, there was a key Georgia steal, layup, or three-pointer. The ‘Dores got the lead down to single-digits with two minutes remaining in the game…but the Lady Dawgs knocked down shots and converted free throws down the stretch to win going way and create a little distance (for now, anyway) between themselves and all the other SEC teams within a game or two of second place in the conference.

Georgia had four players reach double-digits in scoring today: Anne Marie, who was simply magnificent all-around, finished with a career-high 23 points. Jazz scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for her second double-double of the season. The resurgent and red-hot J.J. scored 17 points and Khaalidah added 10. You get that kind of balanced scoring and you’re probably going to win yourself a ballgame or two. That’s certainly been the case for Georgia: The Lady Bulldogs are undefeated (4-0) in games featuring four double-digit scorers.

A huge road test now awaits the Lady Dawgs as they head up to Columbia next Thursday night to take on South Carolina. We’ll have a Georgia/South Carolina preview posted right here sometime during the day on Wednesday.

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

Not much to talk about in the Georgia’s-off-week edition of the national polls as far as the top teams are concerned. Kentucky, after leapfrogging Duke into the top five last week, surrendered the number-five slot back to the Blue Devils after losing to LSU. Baylor’s still your unanimous number-one team. And our Lady Bulldogs remain in a 21st/20th holding pattern after being idle this week. The real action in this week’s polls takes place from number-five downward as a host of upsets (including losses by Tennessee and South Carolina) re-shuffled the nation’s Top-25 in both polls. So click on the link and check out the complete poll standings. It’s only going to get crazier and more unpredictable from here on out…

Here’s a look at the top five in both national polls and Georgia’s ranking:

AP

1. Baylor

2. Notre Dame

3. Connecticut

4. Stanford

5. Duke

21. GEORGIA

ESPN/USA TODAY

1. Baylor

2. Notre Dame

3. Connecticut

4. Stanford

5. Duke

20. GEORGIA

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

Wow. What a difference a “bye” week makes. You take one Thursday off (as the Lady Bulldogs did this week) and the SEC’s nationally-ranked teams start dropping like flies. Yes…Tennessee and South Carolina were both upset victims this past week. And the team that knocked off the Lady Vols will be in Athens tomorrow. Vanderbilt (19-4 overall, 7-4 in SEC play) has already defeated Georgia (18-6 overall, 7-4 in the SEC) just over two weeks ago in Nashville. That win was the start of the current five-game SEC winning streak that the Commodores will be riding in on tomorrow. With their surge from 2-4 to 7-4 in conference play, Vandy is now one of four teams (including Georgia, Arkansas, and South Carolina) clustered in third place in the league behind Kentucky (10-1) and Tennessee (8-3). Tennessee plays Kentucky on Monday, raising the possibility of the Lady Vols picking up their fourth SEC loss and throwing second, third, and fourth place in the conference completely up for grabs. And we haven’t even taken potential SEC tiebreakers into account yet.

All that said…there’s one way for the Lady Bulldogs to control their own destiny: Win games. Finish strong. If the Lady Dawgs take care of their own business, starting tomorrow against a tough, hot Vanderbilt team, they can punch their own ticket for a first-round “bye” in the SEC Tournament. See you there!

Georgia and Vanderbilt will get things going tomorrow afternoon (2:00 PM) at Stegeman Coliseum. The game will be the SEC Network Game of the Week and can seen live on Peachtree TV (formerly TBS). Or you can watch online at ESPN3.com. All you radio listeners can tune in to your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station. We’ll have a game recap, web links, and exclusive Georgia/Vandy photos posted right here sometime tomorrow night.

Click here for the official Georgia/Vanderbilt game notes.

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

Click here to see the complete Commodore roster.

Brenda Rawson, our intrepid Fastbreak Club website field photographer, made the trip to Tuscaloosa over the weekend and sent along these photos from the Alabama game. (Which, contrary to outward appearances, was not played in the Hank Williams High School gym…but in the state-of-the-1940s-art Foster Auditorium.) Y’all have a look at these. Thanks, Brenda!

This just in from the UGA Sports Communications Office:

ATHENS, GA – Georgia’s Krista Donald (pictured) was named SEC Freshman of the Week by the league office in Birmingham, Alabama, on Monday, a day after she posted game-high tallies of 18 points and nine rebounds in the Lady Bulldogs’ victory over Alabama.

Donald, a 5-11, guard/forward from Lake, Mississippi, averaged 11.0 points and 6.0 rebounds in Georgia’s victories over Mississippi State and the Crimson Tide over the past seven days.

Versus Mississippi State, Donald scored four points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field and grabbed three rebounds in seven minutes of action. At Alabama, Donald scored 10 first-half points and led Georgia offensively for the first time in her career. She also logged a career-most 24 minutes of playing time against the Crimson Tide.

For the season, Donald is averaging 5.1 points and 3.2 rebounds per game.

Nine different Lady Bulldogs have combined to capture SEC Freshman of the Week accolades 20 times since the award’s inception in 2006. Donald joins current teammates Erika Ford, Jasmine Hassell, Jasmine James and Khaalidah Miller as SEC Freshman of the week honorees.

(Photo courtesy of Fastbreaker Bill Zachmann.)

J.J.’s back! A monster game for Krista! And how about that bump on Meredith’s head? Wow…I have seen hematomas like that in boxing matches (caused by head butts), but never in basketball. The good news is that Meredith stayed on the bench, which probably means the training staff concluded that there wasn’t a concussion. Even as ugly as it looked, it’s most likely something that an ice pack, lots of Advil, and the upcoming “bye” week off will take care of. Let’s go to the official recap, courtesy of Georgiadogs.com:

Jasmine James and Krista Donald scored 18 points each as they led the No. 21 Georgia Lady Bulldogs (18-6, 7-4) past the Alabama Crimson Tide (10-14, 0-10), 81-66, Sunday afternoon.

In addition to her season-high scoring effort, James also recorded eight rebounds and four assists as she led a quintet of Lady Bulldogs in double-digit scoring. Donald’s 18 points mark the first time in her career that she has led Georgia in scoring; she is the seventh player to do so this season. Donald also led the Lady Bulldogs on the boards, for the third time this season, with nine rebounds.

James came off the bench with 17:39 left in the first half when Meredith Mitchell left the game with a knot on her head after a collision following a rebound. James missed the past five games with a right knee sprain. James’ first points of the afternoon came off a pair of free throws five minutes into the game.

“Obviously tonight was bittersweet and it’s a little bit frustrating to me as a coach because tonight was a night when we were going to have everybody healthy and get this season moving in the direction that we wanted to move it in,” said head coach Andy Landers. “Then, two minutes into the game, Meredith is out and a very important player to us isn’t healthy anymore. That’s disappointing; of course it was an accident and it’s not anybody’s fault. As a result of Meredith being out, we were playing people at different positions and J.J. was trying to knock some of the cobwebs off.”

Khaalidah Miller put up 14 points and pulled down four rebounds. Anne Marie Armstrong tallied 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. Jasmine Hassell scored 10 points and recorded four rebounds.

Georgia took an early 7-2 lead and never looked back. Erika Ford started the game quickly with a basket just 30 seconds in.

Alabama took their first lead at 25-24 with 5:41 left in the first period off of a three-pointer by Shafontaye Myers. The Lady Bulldogs regained the lead when Donald connected on a pair of free throws less than a minute later. Back-to-back jumpers by Donald and Armstrong increased Georgia’s advantage to 30-25.

Georgia led by seven a total of five times in the opening period, lastly at 36-29 with 1:11 left. A jumper at the buzzer by Meghan Perkins pulled the Crimson Tide within five and the Lady Bulldogs entered the locker room with a 36-31 advantage.

In the first half, Georgia shot a blistering 70.6 percent from the charity stripe, connecting on 12-of-17. This number was aided by James’ 6-of-8 performance at the free throw line.

The Lady Bulldogs started the second half just as spirited at the first, scoring four points in the first minute and increasing their lead to 40-31.

A quick five points by the Crimson Tide made it seem as if they were making a surge, but back-to-back jumpers by Donald stalled them and increased Georgia’s lead, 46-36.

The Lady Bulldogs continued to increase their lead and with 7:53 left on the clock, a Miller trey put Georgia up by 15, 61-46.

Alabama fought hard the whole game, but it was not enough. Georgia met them basket-for-basket and them some, leading by as much as 20.

The Lady Bulldogs return to action Sunday, Feb. 12 at 2:00 PM when they host the Vanderbilt Commodores.

We’ll have a Georgia/Vandy preview posted right here sometime during the day on Friday. Look for the weekly polls update on Wednesday…and we’ll keep our eyes open for other stuff that might catch your interest during the off week. In the meantime…catch your breath, Fastbreakers. The sprint to the finish is about to start.

You’ve just read the official recap…but click here for a link to the stats and box score.