Bulldogs survive over Razorbacks 66-61 in overtime

Georgia bounces back from Tuesday's loss in Gainesville with a hard fought 66-61 overtime win over Arkansas. The Bulldogs survived what was an overall ugly affair offensively for both teams but once again did the dirty work on the boards and that proved to be the difference.

Arkansas came into Saturday's game averaging over 84 points a game so controlling the pace was essential for Georgia. The Bulldogs were successful in slowing things down and proved resilient whenever the Razorbacks threatened to stretch the lead out.

Arkansas led 29-28 at the half and extended the lead to 41-34 with 15:59 remaining thanks to a personal 8-0 run from the Razorbacks' Fred Gulley. Arkansas then went cold going scoreless for the next six minutes. Georgia wasn't much better over that span but managed to trim the lead to 41-40 on a Kenny Gaines layup with 9:25 remaining.

Georgia took a two point lead at 52-50 with a pair of free throws from Brandon Morris but Arkansas's Rashad Madden tied things back up with a pair of his own. Freshman J.J. Frazier, who manned the point for the Bulldogs down the stretch, missed a long three point attempt on the Bulldogs' final possession of regulation. Madden followed by missing a game-winning attempt with five seconds remaining sending the game into overtime.

The Bulldogs began the overtime period with a 7-0 run. Charles Mann capped off the run with a spinning drive for a layup plus the foul that put Georgia in front 59-52 with 2:22 remaining. Mann struggled most of the afternoon and sat for the last five minutes of regulation after picking up his fourth foul. Arkansas never got any closer than four points in the overtime and Georgia closed things out from the free throw line.

Gaines led the way for the Bulldogs with 15 points including a big three to start the overtime session. Marcus Thornton did a lot of the heavy lifting on the boards and finished with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Mann struggled for most of the afternoon but was big in overtime and finished with nine points and three assists.

Georgia wins despite shooting just 31 percent for the game while committing 19 turnovers. They overcome that by out rebounding the Razorbacks 56-34. A whopping 24 of those 56 rebounds came on the offensive end of the floor. Coty Clarke scored 13 points to lead Arkansas. Madden and Gulley finished with 12 points each.

It wasn't pretty but Mark Fox and the Bulldogs in the end did whatever it took to pull out a victory.