Georgia has 2-0 Saturday
ATLANTA – After winning four Southeastern Conference games all season, Georgia has won three in three days. Two of them came Saturday, improbably leading the Bulldogs into the championship game of the SEC tournament.
Sundiata Gaines scored 20 points before fouling out and Georgia, playing its second game of the day, overcame a thin roster and little rest to stun Mississippi State 64-60 in the semifinals.
Charles Rhodes scored 22 points for Mississippi State (22-10), which finished first in the SEC West, but his late technical foul helped Georgia, the last-place team in the East, pull off its second upset of the day.
Georgia (16-16) will face Arkansas in today’s final with hopes of completing a highly unexpected march to the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs were only 4-12 in the league during the regular season and entered the tournament with coach Dennis Felton’s job status in apparent jeopardy.
“Nobody wanted to give us credit,” Gaines said. “We made history today but we’ve got to finish it out tomorrow.”
Gaines hurt his hip on a hard foul when picking up his fifth foul on a charge with 7:18 left, but he said the injury wouldn’t keep him out of today’s game.
“I can’t really worry about that right now,” Gaines said. “I’m not worried about the hip.” Georgia upset Kentucky 60-56 earlier Saturday in a quarterfinal game pushed back a day due to the tornado that damaged the Georgia Dome the previous night.
The Bulldogs’ win over Kentucky was impressive enough, but few expected they would have enough left to even remain competitive against Mississippi State.
They did – and even had enough left over to celebrate the win. Corey Butler slapped hands with Georgia fans and Felton left the court pumping his fist and slapping hands with several boosters hanging over tunnel.
The semfinal was played before an estimated crowd of 1,000 at Georgia Tech’s Alexander Memorial Coliseum, where the final two days of the tournament were moved after the tornado ripped through the Georgia Dome during the quarterfinals.