IIIRR: Georgia 58, Gardner-Webb 49

Georgia moved to 5-4 on the season with a win in Thursday afternoon's school day special, defeating the visiting Gardner-Webb Running Bulldogs 58-49 in Stegeman.

The game wasn't televised, and I was unable to catch it on radio, so like most of us in the comment thread, I followed along on gametracker. It was an ugly game, with both teams struggling to score. But Georgia held a solid lead, in the single digits, for much of the game.

Charles Mann returned from his knee injury, coming off the bench to give 8 points and 6 rebounds, but also 6 turnovers. Junior Marcus Thornton and freshman Juwan Parker led the way for the Dawgs, with Thornton scoring 11 pts on 5 of 10 shooting, snagging 7 rebounds and blocking 4 shots. Parker, out of Tulsa, finished with a team-high 12 points and 9 rebounds, including a perfect 1-1 from 3 and 5-5 from the FT line.

Georgia had 19 turnovers, which is bad. Very bad. But they also held G-W to a 17 of 54 night from the floor (31.5%), and outrebounded the visitors 46 to 27. We also went 19 of 25 from the FT line, which is good.

The Dawgs return to action Saturday, when they host Western Carolina at 2 p.m. The Lady Dawgs will tip off at Rutgers at the same time. The Georgia athletics schedule thins out over winter break, as those will be the only games any Georgia athletics team plays until the following weekend when the men and women again play on Saturday the 28th (men at Colorado, women host Illinois).