Georgia 57, Tennessee 53
Gerald Robinson scored 16 points and Georgia overcame poor shooting to outlast Tennessee 57-53 in overtime on Wednesday night, giving the Bulldogs their first Southeastern Conference win of the season.
Georgia (10-8, 1-3 SEC) won despite scoring only five points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The Bulldogs made only 34.9 percent of their shots from the field.
Skylar McBee's only basket, a 3-pointer, gave Tennessee (8-10, 1-3) a 53-52 lead with 2:11 remaining in overtime. Following a missed jumper by Georgia's Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, a turnover by the Vols gave Georgia another chance with 1:15 remaining.
Donte Williams scored with 1:03 remaining to give Georgia a 54-43 lead, and he was fouled by Cameron Tatum on the play. Williams missed the free throw but Caldwell-Pope grabbed the rebound. Robinson's two free throws with 26.4 seconds remaining pushed the lead to three points.
Williams and Nemanja Djurisic each had 11 points for Georgia.
Trae Golden led Tennessee with 16 points. Jeronne Maymon had 12 and freshman Jarnell Stokes had 11 in only his second college game.
Tennessee did not lead in the first half but finally took advantage of Georgia's poor shooting after the Bulldogs led 27-24 at halftime.
The game was tied at 44-44 before Golden's short jumper gave the Vols the lead.
Robinson tied the game again by driving down the baseline for a layup with 17 seconds remaining. After the teams traded timeouts with 13.2 seconds remaining, Golden missed a shot from the wing with about 1 second left. Georgia called a timeout with 0.6 seconds left, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope missed a half-court shot to send the game to overtime.
Stokes, the 6-foot-8, 250-pound freshman forward who signed with Tennessee on Dec. 23 and had his first practice on Jan. 9, also contributed eight rebounds.
Tennessee stayed close in the first half as it relied on Golden, the sophomore who had nine straight points for the Vols.
Georgia, painfully undersized, received a boost to its front line with forward Marcus Thornton's return from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. Thornton made his first appearance since hurting the knee on Dec. 23.
Georgia avoided its first 0-4 start in the SEC since losing its first nine conference games in the 2008-09 season.