Georgia and Arkansas, two teams battling to finish out of the bottom four slots in the Southeastern Conference standings, will play on Saturday in Fayetteville, Arkansas. While the top four receive byes to the quarterfinals and teams 5–10 automatically get spots in the second round, teams placing Nos. 11–14 in the final regular-season standings must play a first-round match in the conference tournament. The Bulldogs (14-9, 4-6 SEC) are tied for 10th place with Mississippi State, but if they finish that way, they forfeit the tiebreaker. Due to Georgia’s 75-62 loss against Mississippi State in their lone meeting on Wednesday, they would be ranked eleventh.
Currently ranked in 12th place, the Razorbacks (11-11, 2-7 SEC) must defeat Georgia to split the season following their 76-66 setback on January 10 at Athens, Georgia. Since their victory over the Razorbacks gave them a 2-0 lead in the conference competition, the Bulldogs have only gone 2-6. Coach Mike White of Georgia, though, felt he saw some positive developments in the road defeat to Mississippi State. Up until the last six minutes, Mississippi State had the upper hand in the contest.
I don’t think the final score really captures how close the game was in the closing moments,” stated White. “The effort was there, the physicality was there and I thought our guys played really hard.” With 20 points, Noah Thomasson led Georgia. With 12.3 points per game this season, he is second on the squad behind only Jabri Abdur-Rahim (13.2 ppg). The Razorbacks are coming off a 21-point beating at LSU last Saturday, and their sole victory in their previous five games came against Missouri, who is currently in last place. Coach Eric Musselman identified two crucial areas where his Hogs have suffer
protecting the dribble drive and the three,” he declared. “If we were, we’d probably have a better record.” Davonte Davis, the senior guard, is anticipated to return to the Razorbacks after missing the previous three games due to his own choice. He has averaged 6.3 points per game with a team-high 40 assists, starting 18 of his 19 outings.
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