Georgia basketball is thinking NCAA tournament. Taking care of business vs. LSU was needed

Georgia basketball started SEC play off strong each of the first two seasons with Mike White as head coach.

The Bulldogs slid back with a three-game losing skid last January after a 3-1 start.

Then another in February before dropping six games in a row to end last season.

This year’s team, which found a way to beat LSU 68-66 Wednesday night with a go-ahead score in the waning seconds, is different from the one that finished 16-16 last year.

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Outside of a pair of losses in mid-November in the Bahamas against Miami and Providence, these Bulldogs have shown bounce-back capability.

They showed it again Wednesday night when LSU overcame a 9-point deficit late and went ahead 66-65 with 17.4 seconds to play on a layup by Jalen Cook (21 points). He added a free throw to complete a three-point play.

Georgia got its own three-point play and pulled it out.

After Jabri Abdur-Rahim missed a 3 from the top of the key, 7-footer Russel Tchewa (11 points, 11 rebounds) scored on a putback with 2.1 seconds to play and sank a free throw after being fouled.

"After every shot, I'm just going to the glass so I'm just doing what I'm doing every day in practice," the South Florida transfer said. "I did my job."

LSU's Jordan Wright's 3-pointer from the corner at the buzzer didn't go down and Georgia survived.

"We grinded this one out," White said.

Add another win that could be remembered in March. Just like rallying in-game against Florida State when down 17 to get a road victory.

Georgia now has avoided consecutive losses twice this month after a 10-game winning streak was snapped.

"I just saw a fight, man," guard Silas Demary said of Georgia's final possession. "We wanted to win. The will to win. That's what I saw."

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Georgia (14-5, 4-2 SEC) wasn’t at the top of its game Wednesday night, but it still downed the Tigers in Stegeman Coliseum.

Niagara transfer Noah Thomasson (11 points) snapped out of a mini-rut with a pair of second-half 3-pointers after LSU (11-8, 3-3) tied the game at 50. It pushed Georgia ahead 57-52 and the lead was 61-52 after an RJ Melendez layup with 5:48 to go, but it had to hold on for dear life.

The win came four days after a 105-96 loss at Kentucky in which the Bulldogs climbed back to make the final score tighter.

Georgia went to South Carolina last week and got a big road win three days after being unable to close out what would have been an upset over No. 5 Tennessee. Georgia's win in Columbia was their only home loss of the season for the Gamecocks whose fans stormed the court after upsetting Kentucky Tuesday night.

Georgia overcame a season-high 18 turnovers against LSU, started 2 of 10 from the field and led 35-33 at the half after Demary (15 points) scored 11 straight points.

"If you're going to be in the conversation to play some postseason, there's going to be a handful of those for a team like us if we're fortunate to get over the hump and win some or all of those, you give yourself a better chance," White said.

Demary made a steal that led to a RJ Melendez dunk and a 41-33 lead that got the home crowd roaring as LSU started the second half missing its first four shots and turning the ball over three times.

The Tigers tied it up with a three-point play by Hunter Dean with 11:06 to go.

Taking care of business against LSU won’t move the needle much for Georgia’s NCAA tournament hopes but losing at home to a team No. 92 in the NET could have been costly come March.

“I definitely think this team will be in the tournament,” Melendez, the Illinois transfer, said before the game. “We’ve got a lot of potential. I’ve seen it when we play top teams. We’re still figuring stuff out but I think we’re definitely going to be an NCAA (tournament) team.”

Georgia is now one third of the way through the SEC schedule.

It’s off to its best six-game start in league play since 2016-17.

The Bulldogs that year also started 4-2 and then lost six of its last seven games, finished 19-15 and played in the NIT.

Georgia plays its next four games against top 50 NET teams starting at Florida Saturday, then South Carolina at home and at Mississippi State on Feb. 7.

Thomasson, the team’s second leading scorer, finally got going on the offensive end. He entered 4 of 17 with 14 points total in his last two games and started 1 of 4 from the field in the first half.

It may need to tighten up its 3-point defense. A game after Kentucky shot 14 of 25, LSU was 10 of 23.

LSU went more than six and a half minutes in the second half without a field goal but still made the Bulldogs sweat at the end before Georgia prevailed.

"You had 10 guys on the court there for 40 minutes throwing haymakers," White said.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Why UGA basketball beating LSU matters for NCAA tournament chances