The Georgia Bulldogs almost picked up a signature win on Tuesday night against the Kentucky Wildcats. Georgia battled Kentucky and took the No. 8 ranked Wildcats to overtime before succumbing to an excellent shooting performance from Malik Monk. This Georgia team will get another opportunity for a big win when they travel east to face the South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday afternoon. A win for the Gamecocks would further strengthen their already strong case for an NCAA bid and keep them on pace with Kentucky in the SEC East.
At 2 p.m. ET, tune into ESPN2 for live television coverage of this NCAA basketball game on Saturday, February 4, 2017, at Colonial Life Arena. We will have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Saturday schedule.
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Georgia is 13-9 overall but the Bulldogs have played teams awfully close in conference play. They have covered five of their last six conference games and have been particularly good away from Athens this season. Georgia is 6-2 ATS on the road this year.
South Carolina has ridden one of the best defenses in the country to a No. 19 ranking and a 17-4 record. That defense has led to the under going 13-5 in Gamecocks games this season. This team has been solid in conference play with a 5-2-1 ATS record.
Matchup to Watch
The Gamecocks stifling defense has continually stymied opponents and it’s hard to imagine the Bulldogs scoring a lot of points against this group. South Carolina has held opponents to just 60.8 PPG this season and are even better nationally at field goal defense. Opposing teams are hitting just 37.2 percent of their field goals and 25.4 percent of their three-pointers against South Carolina.
There’s no secret as to what Georgia’s strategy will be, give the ball to Yante Maten as much as possible. Maten is the team’s leading scorer and by far the most efficient scorer, hitting 53.6 percent of his field goals on the season. He has also doubled as the team’s leading rebounder and despite his size is a great three-point shooter as well, hitting 48.6 percent of his three-point attempts. Maten will need to have a quality performance for Georgia to get a big road win.
Last Meeting
Georgia and South Carolina met last month in Athens in an ugly low-scoring game that the Bulldogs had a real chance to win. The Bulldogs outrebounded the Gamecocks 40 to 34 and held South Carolina to just 42.6 percent shooting from the floor, but had a major turnover problem. Maten and J.J. Frazier each had six turnovers in the game and Georgia had 16 turnovers as a team.
Don’t expect the Bulldogs to get the help they did from the officials last time these teams met. Georgia ended up going to the line 30 times on the evening, 13 more times than South Carolina did, and knocked down 23 of those attempts in order to keep it close. With the venue being switched to Columbia, the Gamecocks will be the beneficiary of those calls.
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The Gamecocks have a game against LSU late Wednesday night, but are an 8-point road favorite against the 9-11 Tigers. South Carolina should be 18-4 and 8-1 in conference by the time it hosts Georgia on Saturday afternoon.
Maten’s worst shooting game in the SEC came against South Carolina when these teams faced off a month ago. He went just 4 of 12 from the floor, but had a fantastic night on the glass, picking up 8 offensive rebounds. He’ll need to be sound in both aspects for the Bulldogs to knock off the Gamecocks this time around.
The under is the best bet here. South Carolina isn’t very productive on the offensive end and plays great defense, while Georgia doesn’t light up the scoreboard. Under has hit in three of the last four meetings between these two teams.
College Basketball Odds: South Carolina 65, Georgia 58
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