Finals verdict

DULUTH, Ga. – It was a tradition neither coach Mark Few nor his Gonzaga Bulldogs were interested in seeing continue.

But continue it did, as the 16th-ranked Zags laid yet another semester-break egg in falling to Georgia 96-83 in the Chick-fil-A Classic For Kids at the Gwinnett Center Arena.

GU (9-3), which has a perplexing history of playing poorly in the first game following finals week, did it again Saturday afternoon, flinching repeatedly in the face of UGA’s stifling half-court defensive pressure and relentless charge to the offensive boards.

Georgia’s Bulldogs (7-1), showing no ill-effects of an 11-day layoff – or the final exams they completed earlier this week – outhustled and outmuscled the Zags on nearly every possession, forcing 21 turnovers and yanking down 16 offensive rebounds.

“There is no doubt that Georgia had a stronger conviction to win this game,” Few said, after watching his Bulldogs shoot 58.9 percent (33 of 56) from the floor and make 11 of 22 attempts from 3-point range just to stay close. “They were hungrier, they were tougher, and they were just beating us to every loose ball.

“Every 50-50 ball they got, and that’s what’s going to decide a game like this.”

Sophomore guard Jeremy Pargo, who finished with 17 points as one of five GU scorers in double figures, put it much more bluntly.

“We just got slapped around like a bunch of little kids,” he said.

Georgia, which has now won six straight since losing to Western Kentucky on Nov. 14, scored 30 points off Gonzaga turnovers and outrebounded the Zags 34-28.

Levi Stukes, one of only two seniors on UGA’s roster, scored a game-high 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting that included four 3-pointers and was ecstatic over the upset triumph.

“This is the biggest win of my whole career,” said Stukes, who was a freshman on the 2004 Georgia team that stunned Kentucky 65-57 in the schools’ last win over a nationally ranked opponent. “Kentucky is one of those I’ll always remember, but just because of the ups and down with this team, this was probably bigger because we’re playing against a team that is nationally known, and everybody thought we didn’t have a chance.

“We showed the nation, on national TV, that Georgia is a team you have to watch out for.”

Few was certainly in agreement.

“Again, they’re a good team – an NCAA tournament team – and we knew that coming in,” he said. “We tried to prepare our guys for that, but apparently we didn’t do a good enough job.”

Gonzaga got a team-high 19 points from senior guard Derek Raivio and 15 from Josh Heytvelt, who also pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. But Few was far from enamored with the approach of Heytvelt, his 6-foot-11 sophomore forward, who scored nine of his points from beyond the 3-point line.

“He had no conviction inside,” Few said. “We were trying to run stuff to get him inside and he kept taking the path of least resistance, which was to float outside and shoot the 3 – which he can do.

“But we’re never going to get to where we need to be if all he’s going to do is spend time out there at the 3-point line. We wanted to attack inside, and Sean Mallon (11 points and five rebounds), to his credit, did that. He came in and attacked, but Josh took the easy road and shot 3s.”

Georgia’s Steve Newman, a 6-9, 235-pound senior, who helped in keeping Heytvelt from establishing anything inside, said denying the post is always one of his team’s main defensive goals.

“We try to eliminate their best players – any post player, really,” he explained. “We don’t want the ball to get into the post at all, so it’s always a focus to keep it outside, and it worked well today.”

UGA forged a 50-45 halftime lead and then scored 11 unanswered points following intermission to take control of the game. Gonzaga pulled to within 70-65 on a 3-pointer by freshman Matt Bouldin with just more than 12 minute left, but never got any closer.

Georgia used some accurate shooting to build its halftime advantage, which probably should have been much larger, considering the way Gonzaga stumbled around for the first 20 minutes of the game.

UGA, which made nine of its first 11 shots, finished the first half 22 of 35 from the field and used nine straight points from Stukes to erase a 31-26 deficit. Stukes capped his one-man surge with a steal that resulted in a three-point play at the other end of the floor and put Georgia up 39-35.

Gonzaga’s first-half follies, which included 14 turnovers, was epitomized shortly after Stuke’s offensive explosion when Raivio flipped an easy, uncontested guard-to-guard pass to Pargo, only to see his teammate stumble backward and fall down as the ball bounced out of bounds.

While holding the ball for a final first-half shot, the Zags turned it over when Heytvelt was called for an offensive foul after backing into a defender out on the left wing with just more than 3 seconds left in the period.

“They just came out and smoked us,” Heytvelt said. “They came out and played well both halves. They shot well, rebounded well and outworked us.”

Things don’t get any easier for the Zags, who will spend a couple of days in the deep South before traveling north to New York for Thursday’s much-anticipated showdown against Duke in Madison Square Garden.

Georgia 96, Gonzaga 83

Percentages: FG .589, FT .750. 3-Point Goals: 11-22, .500 (Heytvelt 3-5, Raivio 3-7, Pargo 2-5, Mallon 1-1, Bouldin 1-2, Altidor-Cespedes 1-2). Team Rebounds: 6. Blocked Shots: 4 (Heytvelt 3). Turnovers: 21 (Bouldin 5). Steals: 7 (Raivio 4). Technical Fouls: None.

Percentages: FG .539, FT .615. 3-Point Goals: 6-21, .286 (Stukes 4-8, Gaines 1-3, Mercer 1-6, Singleton 0-1, Newman 0-2). Team Rebounds: 5. Blocked Shots: 3 (Mercer, Newman, Bliss). Turnovers: 12 (Gaines 4). Steals: 10 (Gaines 6). Technical Fouls: None.

Halftime–Georgia 50, Gonzaga 45. A–6,812.