UGA Men’s Basketball: Georgia Bests South Carolina State, 76-60

Team Statistics

Game Stats	SCSt	UGa
FG%	.436	.459
3FG%	.368	.318
FT%	.833	.619
RB	33	36
TO	18	10
STL	4	13

ATHENS, Ga. – In a battle of bordering Bulldogs, the University of Georgia men’s basketball team rebounded with a 76-60 victory over South Carolina State Tuesday evening before 6,021 spectators at Stegeman Coliseum.

Graduate Aaron Cook led Georgia (2-1) with 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting to go with a team-high seven assists and three steals. Sophomore Kario Oquendo tallied a career-high 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting, while redshirt senior Braelen Bridges pitched in with 15 points and a third-consecutive game with eight rebounds. For the evening, the Bulldogs shot 45.9 percent from the field, including a 31.8 percent clip from beyond the arc.

“With Kario (Oquendo), there’s no question that he has a lot of tools and a lot of talent in there,” said Georgia head coach Tom Crean following the game. “I think he was highly disappointed in the way he played Saturday night. I think what he did tonight is he came out with an aggressive defensive mindset. He had 11 deflections. He came out with an attack mindset. I give his coaches back home credit as well because I know they talked to him. We’re not trying to over coach him, but we are trying to get him to understand what he’s capable of when it comes to attacking the rim, attacking the glass and being an attack guy defensively. It’s about really being active with his hands and doing all those things. He works extremely hard.”

Georgia began the game briskly as Cook connected on a 3-pointer in the first minute of play, followed later by a pair of treys from redshirt senior Noah Baumann that helped the Bulldogs build a 13-4 lead by the first media break. The Bulldogs continued their shooting barrage, eventually extending the lead to 15 by the 12-minute mark.

South Carolina State (0-5) then began to cut into the deficit as Georgia started to cool, bringing the margin to 10 on a layup with 7:32 remaining in the half. SCSU continued to charge with three consecutive 3-pointers, bringing the score to 38-33. In need of a resurgence, Georgia found one with a 7-3 run to end the half, culminating in a dunk by Oquendo.

The pace slowed as the second half started with neither team scoring in the first two minutes. Georgia started maintaining its advantage via the foul line, entering the bonus just five minutes into the period. However, SCSU once again cut the lead down to five with its midrange game, yet this rally proved to be short-lived.

Beginning with a 3-pointer from Cook, the Bulldogs scored eight unanswered to return the lead to double-digits with eight minutes to play. As Cook and Oquendo led the way, Georgia began to seal the contest with strong outside shooting and a faltering SCSU offense, with Oquendo knocking down a long triple to make the score 74-57 with three minutes left.

“When you’re a new program like this, or new players in a program like this, it takes time to get it to come together,” said Crean. “Every time it does, you should be able to build your confidence with it and make it a continuation.”

Georgia remains home this Friday as it renews its annual rivalry with Georgia Tech following a one-year interruption. The Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets tip off at 9 p.m. EST with the game airing on SEC Network.

Head Coach Tom Crean
On the importance of Kario Oquendo’s performance… 
“In response to Kario (Oquendo), there’s no question that he has a lot of tools and a lot of talent in there. I think he was highly disappointed in the way he played Saturday night. I think what he did tonight is he came out with an aggressive defensive mindset. He had 11 deflections. He came out with an attack mindset. I give his coaches back home credit as well because I know they talked to him. We’re not trying to over coach him, but we are trying to get him to understand what he’s capable of when it comes to attacking the rim, attacking the glass and being an attack guy defensively. It’s about really being active with his hands and doing all those things. He works extremely hard. We forget that he’s a freshman. Even though he’s 21, he’s a freshman. It takes time. To see him breakout tonight like that, to see Aaron (Cook) play the way he did, to see Braelen (Bridges) continue to play the way he did, those are the kind of things. Jabri (Abdur-Rahim) is going to have it. When you’re a new program like this, or new players in a program like this, it takes time to get it to come together. Every time it does, you should be able to build your confidence with it and make it a continuation.”

On the excitement of seeing highlight plays from Kario Oquendo… 
“I’m not as much with that. I just look at the game differently. I was very impressed with the steal, how active his hands were. Certainly, the plays are good. I’ve coached a lot of guys that can do that, but how they get to it is what separates them. Do they get it off offensive boards? Do they get it off steals? Do they get it off picking somebody’s pocket? Do they get it off reading the defense and making a cut? Those are the kind of things that, to me, it’s much more about with the coaching and how do we help them do it more. It’s the actual result, though it is cool.”

On Aaron Cook’s performance and leadership… 
“First off, he’s a tremendous defensive player. I said this on the radio earlier, after our walk-through – I try not to use the entire time, so I think we were done at 3:15 or 3:20. Mark Slonaker had one of his grad classes in the building. They were up in the stands, so I went up to talk to them. I think our walk-through is over, and guys are going up to eat. I hear commotion, so I’m thinking maybe the managers are playing. I turn around and see our team on the floor. I think we can’t be playing pick-up. Aaron (Cook) is taking the team through transition defense. Trust me, that is not normal, and that does not happen here where it wasn’t coach driven in my four years. He was taking the team through what we had to get done in transition, the rotations of it. He was doing it on his own. That’s the kind of leadership we need. They didn’t go up to eat until he was done. That’s what you need. The game that he had, when you do things like that, the fact that he scored his 1,000th point tonight, those are really good things. I think he’s going to get better and better. He’s improving. He’s made so many strides since he’s been here. He’s made a lot of strides in games since the Charlotte exhibition we had three-plus weeks ago.”

On team improvement…
“We are behind in certain areas, and we are behind in zone offence. We are behind in getting guys to understand the attack pressure, we don’t just break the pressure. They did a good job of slowing us down and we will get better and better, not only because we can shoot, but because we have guys that can steal, we have guys that can pass. You see what you have to continue to work on, you see where the movement is, you see where they are making progress on the defensive end. We have got to get better at guarding the dribble, that is a constant challenge, probably for most programs, but is definitely a challenge for ours. We have got to continue to understand how to get matched up and talk in transitions. And we have got to continue to understand how many good things happen when we get three, four, five, six passes and the ball gets reversed three times.”

On the hot start tonight…
“I think we kept guarding and when we weren’t scoring, we didn’t come back down on the defensive end and hang our head. That is sign of maturity that you have. And I mean we were playing great. We definitely gave up some plays off the dribble, and some threes, but to a very, very, very fast team. I told our team, ‘We will play some fast teams this year. There is no doubt about that. But to this point, that was the fastest team we are going to play, because they just attack, and transition, and get out and play, and numerous guys can score.’ They were scoring 16 points a game in the fast break, and they were getting 16 points off their free throws. So, the fact that we were able to cut the free throws down considerably and cut their break points down, those were some very big parts in the game within the game for us and the way we are trying to chart it as we go through it. But we just needed to keep coming and there is no question that I played guys too many minutes without breaks early on. I rolled the dice on that, and we were able to be fortunate with it. I would have liked to sub more, but we had it going and I didn’t want to mess with the momentum of the game. But at some point, and time it is going to come back and get you a little bit with the fatigue. So, we were able to get that second wind and keep it going and stay on the attack.”

On the emphasis on supplying ball pressure early and possessions aggressively…
“Absolutely. We want to bring pressure to them. We’ve had different games where some people really want that pressure like the Cincinnati guards want you to get up and get on them so they can attack and play. So that was in our game plan. Tonight that was our game plan. A freshman guard who’s gonna be a really good player but get up at him. Aaron (Cook) is a tremendous defensive player and Kario (Oquendo) is going to be and Christian Wright is way ahead of the game then most freshmen when it comes to defensively in the backcourt. Noah (Baumann), Jabri (Abdur-Rahim), those guys have got to continue to get better. Cam McDowell is going to be a very good defender. It was just one of those nights tonight that it was never safe enough for me to do a lot of subbing and I played guys like I said a lot of minutes early on because their pressure was so good and we were on the attack.”

On Aaron’s driving and importance during the game… 
“He’s a power player. He really is. I mean he can get in the lane, he’s getting better at finding people, with another good night of assists after having 10 the other night. And I don’t question I played him too many minutes, I said that about five times now I’d like to get him more rest but he’s so good defensively and he stays on the attack. And then when he’s making threes like that, which he’s fully capable of, that changes the game. I thought the way he drew up the fouls was very veteran savvy, so we love Aaron. We love him, and that’s why it was such an important gift for us. And we’ve never looked back. I mean we love what he brings leadership wise, maturity wise, he’s about the team.”

On engaging all five players on the court… 
“‘I’ll have to watch the film. We want to have five guys in the paint. We want to lock out, be aggressive there, especially on the weak side boards and have the guards end up getting more rebounds that way, but again it’s got to be guys like Jabri (Abdur-Rahim), Kario (Oquendo), Christian (Wright), Aaron (Cook), those guys got to be huge defensive rebounders for us. And I’ll look at the film but that’s a room we can always improve upon. That’s an area we can always improve upon and we’re gonna have to.”

#10 Aaron Cook | Senior

On the team’s all-around performance…
“It meant a lot to us just because we talk a lot about starting our offense with our defense so I think that’s one thing we really tried to focus on coming into this game. Getting defensive stops, getting three stops in a row so that we can get out in transition and score easy buckets on the offensive end.”

On Kario Oquendo…
“That was the first thing we noticed about Kairo when he got here was that he jumps out the gym. Anytime we were playing open gym in the summertime, I would just say ‘hey, run and I’m gonna throw it up to you’ and I know no matter where I throw it he’s going to catch it and dunk it. When you have someone that athletic and that can run as fast as he can in transition it’s almost unstoppable.”

On starting the game off strong…
“Like I said we really focused on getting stops defensively. I know last game we got off on a hot start and at the end, it started to go the other way so when you get out to a good start like this it helps us a lot with our confidence going forward. Those last couple of games we had an uphill battle going into the second half and this game we didn’t have that pressure against us – it just helped us play free.”

On the Georgia/Georgia Tech rivalry…
“Since I’ve been here that’s all I’ve been hearing about. When I saw that game on the schedule everybody’s been saying hey we have to win this game. I know how important it is to these Georgia fans to get that win on Friday so we’re going to come out and give it our all and do everything we can to make that happen.”

On the transition game…
“They battled really hard. They made a lot of tough shots, a lot of open threes just because we didn’t get back in transition. That’s something we definitely have to work on going into next game. But when we did our job we got back on defense and transition, we shut them out. We got easy buckets because our defense created our offense and that’s what we’re really going to have to pride ourselves on the rest of this year if we really want to win at a high level.”

On taking control of the offense…
“It means a lot. Since I got here, day one Coach Crean really instilled that confidence in me, he told me when he recruited me I want you to be the guy that runs the team and be a vocal leader for these guys. My teammates have really helped me rise into that role and they’ve really been behind me ever since day one. I really can’t ask for a better coaching staff and a better group of guys that would instill that confidence in me.”

On the team’s offensive performance…
“I really think it was the fact that we were just moving the ball, it wasn’t sticking as much the last couple games. We kind of made an emphasis to move the ball, get three, four, or five passes, make the defense move and we can get easy shots instead of force contested shots. I really think that was the difference in tonight’s game and it really helped me to get open shots, my teammates found me and I was able to find them. It all works out when we all play together and do what we know we can do.”

On scoring efficiently…
“That’s definitely something I try to take pride in, the first couple of games didn’t reflect that, I had a couple of off nights but I knew eventually it would come back to me. It was just a matter of time, my confidence didn’t waver, I didn’t feel like I couldn’t score but you know, I felt like it would eventually come back to me. My teammates really trusted me and they kept getting me the ball, making sure I got open shots so credit to them and credit to the coaching staff.”

On his individual performance…
“I really just try to play with passion every time I go out on the floor. If you ever just watch me I’m always screaming whenever I do something, I’m always screaming whenever Kairo’s dunking or whenever my teammates are doing anything. I think that’s the biggest thing for me is just playing with passion and the other stuff will come as far as scoring points and getting assists and all those kind of things. But as far as the whole season I just want to continue to compete at a high level, win as many games as possible and make it to the NCAA Tournament, I’m not really worried about individual statistics right now.”

#3 Kario Oquendo | So.

On his thought process as he goes up for a dunk…
“I feel like, when I am going up for a dunk, that is how I get my energy for a game. In my head, I’m like, ‘If I get this one, I know the next couple of shots will be a lot easier, and defense will come easier after that, too.'”

On the flair that he brings on and off the court…
“About the hair, it was something that I wanted to try just because my hair all of my life has just been one color, so I thought I would try it out.”

On his comfort level in the offense…
“Yeah, our last game against Cincinatti, it was not one of my best games. It was probably one of the worst games of my life. I came in, and Coach (Brian) Fish was just telling me that I am going to be a good player. Coach Crean was telling me that I am going to be a good player. I just had to get comfortable with playing and just let the game come to me. Tonight, I went out, and I was like, ‘Alright, this is a good shot, and this is a good cut to the basket.’ That is all we preach, cuts and moving around.”

On comparing his dunks to NBA players and former UGA basketball player, Travis Leslie…
“I have never seen his highlights, but I will have to go and check it out. I would say that I don’t try to compare myself to people, but I watch a lot of basketball. I have seen a lot of stuff growing up. I remember when I was little, I was always like ‘I want to dunk. I want to dunk.’ When I learned how to do it, I was just watching everybody else do it.”

On how his defense has improved this season…
“As soon as I have been here, they have wanted me to be a defensive stopper. Throughout my life, I have never been the person who is going to guard the fastest player on their team or anything like that. The coaching staff is just preaching to me that I can be the best defensive player in the country or the best two-way player in the conference. I just go out there with a different mindset to play defense.”

On making an impression on the home fans…
“It definitely feels good, whenever you have a good game or highlight plays. It is definitely the best feeling that you can have, getting the points falling, getting the shots falling and getting in the scoring column a little more. It definitely feels good.”

On getting the energy going for the fans and for his teammates…
“I love putting on a show for the fans. That is one of my top goals. I feel like, the more and more I can do that, the more and more fans we can get in the building. For my teammates, I try to pump up the whole team to play harder on defense.”