Feb. 22, 2014

Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery

Head Coach Frank Martin

Opening Statement
Give Georgia credit. Their size presents a problem for our basketball team. They make it difficult for our guys to pass and get shots, which then means we have to start driving the ball. We just couldn’t make any shots in the second half. Then missing all those shots kind of deflated us from the energy that we have to have to be a good defensive team. It was unfortunate.

On what he said to the team in the second half
What I tried to do during that segment of the second half was to get them to compete a little harder. And our bigs – outside of Michael [Carrera], take Mike out of the equation – Mike couldn’t score today but at least he got on the glass. We can’t get any of those other bigs to make a layup or get a rebound. We have no presence from the post. So then we can’t just throw the ball in the post and be able to attempt a shot. So then we have to depend on dribble-driving and the guys kind of left Sindarius [Thornwell] out there on his own there. So my challenge with the guys during that segment was to rebound the ball. We’re not making shots so we need to go get the ball and rebound.

Freshman Guard Sindarius Thornwell

On Georgia shutting down South Carolina’s penetration to the middle of the court in the second half
In the second half we were getting the same shots we were getting in the first half. [Brenton] was getting wide-open threes, I was getting wide open floaters, Mindagus [Kacinas], Michael [Carrera] we were getting the same looks. Nothing was falling in the second half. They did stop our penetration but it did open our drive-and-kicks for Brenton. But like I said, nothing was falling.

On overcoming Georgia’s length and height
You can’t teach height and length. We still have to play no matter how big they are. We just have to continue to run the sets and run what Coach [Martin] called. Coach finds the mismatches and just because they are big and tall doesn’t mean they can guard. So we’ll find the mismatch, but we just have to keep executing.

Senior Guard Brenton Williams

On a disappointing 2nd half
When droughts like that happen the only thing you can do is get stops on the defense. In the second half, we were getting every look that we were getting in the first half, but in the second half they weren’t going down. That’s just something that’s on our part that we have to get better at and not let happen.

Georgia Head Coach Mark Fox

On road win
Well I thought that this was a game that if we played well, we could win. South Carolina has been playing terrific and they really in the first half did a good job. At the half we talked about getting back to our roots off getting back after it defensively and that was the key for us.

On South Carolina’s performance
They have a young team. And Frank’s done a phenomenal job with them, and you can get frustrated if you miss a couple, but I thought our defense to our kids credit did a great job.

On Kenny Gaines’ performance
Kenny played well. When he was hurt he had ten days off so he’s fresher than everyone else to be honest with you and he’s really playing well and playing with a lot of confidence and that’s a big plus for us.