The Georgia men’s basketball team was defeated at the hands of No. 5 Auburn 82-60. This was the Bulldogs’ first SEC road game of the year and their third consecutive meeting with a ranked opponent.

Georgia fell to 10-5 on the year and 0-2 in conference play. The Bulldogs had similar struggles in the SEC a year ago — but with lower expectations.

“We’re just getting started,” head coach Tom Crean said. “Now we’ve got to play Tennessee, then we go to Mississippi State, then we go to Kentucky. We proved we can win on the road with Memphis so that was great. We certainly had our moments against Kentucky, but the other thing is we didn’t capitalize on points [or] on turnovers during the game.

Freshman guard Anthony Edwards led Georgia in scoring with 18 points but once again struggled to find his rhythm in the first half. He had just 3 points on 1-5 shooting in the frame.

Junior forward Rayshaun Hammonds was the team’s second leading scorer with 12 points and paced the Bulldogs in rebounding with nine.

Freshman point guard Sahvir Wheeler drew his first career start and led the team in assists, as he has frequently done throughout his brief time with the program.

Auburn senior Samir Doughty was an electric scorer for the Tigers, finishing with 17 points on 6-12 (50%) shooting. He also added six rebounds and four assists to his line.

Prior to Saturday’s matchup, Crean said he had emphasized the importance of rebounding to his undersized group. Georgia jumped out to an early 10-3 lead in that category but faltered down the stretch. Auburn held the final rebounding advantage at 41-33.

The Bulldogs started out fast — aside from just the rebounds — and were able to take an early lead. Auburn used one of its patented runs to pull away late in the first half and did not look back. Georgia’s offense improved in the second half, but it was still not enough to keep up with the home team’s scoring barrage.

Turnovers were another pressing issue for Georgia throughout the contest. It coughed up the ball 14 times compared to Auburn’s 12. The Bulldogs still played tough defense but failed to capitalize on the turnovers they forced.

“Really good teams capitalize on the other team’s turnovers and we are not doing that,” Crean said. “When we turn somebody over, we’ve got to go get that easy basket.”

The atmosphere at Auburn Arena was as electric as ever. Despite Crean’s efforts of blasting music over the speakers in practice during the week, Georgia still often appeared rattled.

Georgia has shown flashes of confidence and maturity during the season, but consistency in those flashes will be the key moving forward.

“Our lack of confidence when things weren’t going well, even in some point-blank ways like a free throw or a layup, hurt us on the other end of the floor,” Crean said. “We’ve got to be able to grow and get out of that.”

Printed with permission from The Red & Black independent student media organization based in Athens, Georgia; redandblack.com/sports