Georgia
Georgia basketball makes defensive statement in home win over Notre Dame
ATHENS — The Georgia basketball program continued its strong early run of play, picking up an impressive 69-48 home win over Notre Dame on Tuesday night in Stegeman Coliseum.
The Bulldogs moved to 8-1 on the season and now boast wins over Georgia Tech, St. John’s and Notre Dame. The lone loss on the season for Georgia came against No. 5 Marquette in The Bahamas.
Asa Newell helped push Georgia ahead in the first half, scoring 11 points in the final 6 minutes of the opening half. Newell’s outburst gave Georgia a 34-22 lead heading into halftime. Newell would finish the game with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
Georgia quickly built its lead up to 17 points, holding a 41-24 edge early in the second half. Notre Dame used a 15-2 run to trim Georgia’s lead to 4. But Dakota Leffew hit a 3-point to stop the run and give Georgia a 46-39 lead.
Leffew once again shined as Georgia’s best 3-point marksman, knocking down 4 of his 9 attempts. He finished with 16 points on the night and was the only Bulldog to knock down multiple 3-point attempts.
With 8:14 remaining, Silas Demary Jr. knocked down an open 3-pointer to push Georiga’s lead safely back into double-digits. It was a positive showing for Demary, as he finished with 11 points and 2 assists on the night. Demary provided a strong defensive effort as well for the Bulldogs, as he had a career-high 5 steals on the night.
Tyrin Lawrence had a strong night running the point for Georgia, as he finished with 7 assists on the evening. Georgia held a commanding 19-to-5 edge in assists. Georgia also topped Notre Dame in the turnover department, as the Bulldogs had 5 compared to Notre Dame’s 10.
Newell, Demary and Leffew were the only Bulldogs to reach double figures on Tuesday night. Georgia did shoot only 44 percent from the field, but that bested Notre Dame’s mark of 36 percent.
If Mike White were to have a complaint, it would be that his team settled for too many 3-pointers. The Bulldogs made just 6 of 26 attempts on the night. Georgia shot just 9 free throw attempts on the evening. Yet Notre Dame was an even more anemic 4-of-21 from 3-point range.
The Bulldogs will get some time off, as they do not return to action until Dec. 14. They will play Grand Canyon in Atlanta in State Farm Arena. Georgia’s next home game will come on Dec. 19 against Buffalo.
Georgia basketball box score, stats for Notre Dame
Georgia basketball box score following the win over Notre Dame. (Screenshot/Dawgnation)
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Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
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