Growing up in Georgia, I was always surrounded by Georgia fans. I, however, always seemed to be the odd one out and never cheered for the Dawgs. I found myself falling in love with Kentucky and never looking back.
Last night, the two teams faced off in Athens, GA for Kentucky's first road game of conference play. The Cats were coming in with one thing on their mind. How will we defend Anthony Edwards? Edwards averages around 18.7 points a game while sitting at 6'5. He is Georgia's stud player, to say the least, and served as a threat to Kentucky last night. Ashton Hagans, a Georgia native who committed to originally play at UGA then recommitted and ultimately chose Kentucky is no stranger to the Bulldogs and they definitely didn't let him forget they had bad blood. Stegman was full off and booing when he had a chance to shoot or was at the line.
The first half was a little slow for our Wildcats. Struggling from outside the paint and from the free-throw line when half-time came the Bulldogs were up 6 and man... you would have thought Georgia had won the National Championship. Stegman completely erupted. I'm all for celebrating and supporting your team, but what the Bulldogs seemed to forget was, they had an entire second half to play.
Kentucky came out of that locker room hot. Playing like the team we all know and love and not only shooting the ball but making shots. Edwards told Maxey he was too small after scoring a layup, but the Wildcats came out and finished with a 78-69 win.
In basketball, it's all about finishing the game. The Bulldogs celebrated their half-time viceroy like the game was over, then came out after half-time and came up short compared to the Kentucky Wildcats who pulled it together and came out on top.