ATHENS, Ga. – Wendell Green Jr. made just one field goal in the second half Saturday. It was the game-winning field goal with three seconds left to lift No. 1 Auburn to a 74-72 road victory at Georgia and extend their winning streak to 19 games.
After a Georgia miss on the other end, Walker Kessler pulled down the rebound and handed it off to Green. The sophomore point guard immediately pushed it the other way and went coast to coast. He made a spin move in the lane, lost control of the ball, gathered it and put it in off the glass to give the Tigers the lead.
"Once Walker got the rebound, I looked at the clock. I knew I had 10 seconds," Green said. "I just wanted to go down there and get the ball up on the rim and score. I knew they were going to be trailing me if I missed, but thankfully, I went up there and got the basket."
Georgia missed a halfcourt heave at the buzzer, clinching the win for Auburn.
"To come in here and get a road win when we had at least three or four guys have what you would consider an off night is pretty good," Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. "I'm not sure any one of our guys would feel like this is one of our better nights.
"We missed Zep Jasper, our best perimeter defender, in a big way,"
Jasper, the team's starting point guard, missed the game with an illness (non-COVID related). Green got the start in his place and finished with 19 points – 15 of those coming in the first half. He's now scored in double figures in 17 of Auburn's 23 games.
Green's backcourt mate, K.D. Johnson, led the Tigers with 20 points. It was Johnson's first game back in Stegeman Coliseum after playing his freshman year at Georgia last year. The sophomore tied the game at 72-72 with a tough drive and lay-up in the final minute.
"It felt OK," Johnson said about being back. "I wanted the team to play a lot better, but we came in here and got the W in a tough Georgia stadium."
Kessler also scored in double figures with 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting from the field. He led the team with nine rebounds and four blocks.
As a team, Auburn outrebounded Georgia, 46-35, and also blocked nine shots.
The Tigers jumped out to a 15-point lead in the first half behind the play of Green and Johnson who combined to score 27 points in the first 20 minutes. Green knocked down a 3 on the opening possession, one of three he connected on in the first half. Johnson did most of his damage around the rim and twice turned steals into points on the other end.
The highlight of the game came at the 7:58 mark in the first half when Green threw an alley-oop off the backboard for Devan Cambridge who slammed it home with one hand. It was Cambridge's lone bucket, but the junior added three rebounds and two steals.
OFF THE BACKBOARD. 😱😱😱@icyywen ↗️ @DevanCambridge #WarEagle x #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/mGVyKJN4UA
— Auburn Basketball 🦚 (@AuburnMBB) February 5, 2022
Auburn led 42-30 at halftime, but Georgia used an 11-0 run early in the second half to cut the advantage to one and grabbed its first lead at 58-56 with just over eight minutes left.
Georgia's Kario Qquendo led all scorers with 25 points.
With the win at Georgia on Saturday and Tuesday's win against Alabama, Auburn swept the season series against both its rivals for the first time since the 2018-19 season and for only the second time in the last 50 years.
"We've just got winners," Green said. "No matter what the circumstance is, we believe in each other. We're 22-1 for a reason. We've got winners. We believe we can win against any team in the country, and we've got big-time players who are going to make big-time plays."
The Tigers will get a short reprieve before traveling to Arkansas on Tuesday night. The game in Fayetteville is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. CT.