Georgia Bulldogs eliminate South Carolina

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Marcus Thornton tallied 15 points and eight rebounds as the Georgia Bulldogs held off the South Carolina Gamecocks 74-62 for an SEC tournament quarterfinal win late Friday night.

Freshman Yante Maten added 13 points and a team-high 10 boards off the bench for third-seeded Georgia (21-10), which will face No. 2 seed Arkansas in Saturday’s second semifinal. The Bulldogs, who also received 12 points and four assists from Charles Mann as well as 11 points from Nemanja Djurisic, shot 46.9 percent from the field and hit 23-of-29 free throws while compiling a 34-29 rebounding edge.

Duane Notice had 20 points, including a 4-of-7 performance from 3-point range, to pace 11th-seeded South Carolina (17-16), which was playing its third game in three nights. Sindarius Thornwell and Laimonas Chatkevicius added 10 points and five rebounds apiece for the Gamecocks, who had beaten the Bulldogs twice during the regular season.

Georgia took a 33-26 edge into the second half, but South Carolina hit six of its first seven post-intermission shots, including a trio of Notice 3-pointers, to jump ahead 44-43 with 11:42 to play. After Thornwell tied the game on a three-point play with 5:23 remaining, Maten scored six of the game’s next seven points to give the Bulldogs a 63-58 lead with 2:59 left and J.J. Frazier accounted for five of Georgia’s final 11 points – including a deep 3-pointer – to help the Bulldogs to pull away.

The game was tight early and knotted at 14-14 with 10:30 left in the opening half when Georgia used a 9-3 run to take a six-point lead. The Bulldogs held serve the rest of the half to take the seven-point advantage into intermission.