ATHENS, Ga. — Sahvir Wheeler scored 16 points and Toumani Camara’s late block helped send Georgia past feisty Vanderbilt 73-70 on Saturday.
The win for Georgia (12-6, 5-6 Southeastern Conference) marks its first three-game winning streak in three seasons under head coach Tom Crean.
Scotty Pippen Jr.’s layup off a sweet spin move in the lane knotted it at 70 with 44 seconds to go. After getting fouled, Camara made 1 of 2 foul shots with 15 seconds left for a one-point Bulldogs lead.
Again, Vanderbilt put the ball in Pippen’s hands and he drove the lane. This time, Camara provided help on defense and smacked Pippen’s shot off the backboard.
Justin Kier sank a pair of foul shots for Georgia with 2.1 seconds left for a 73-70 lead. Camara then again came up big deflecting the pass on Vanderbilt’s inbound attempt and time expired.
P.J. Horne scored 14 points for Georgia and Camara and Kier scored 10 apiece. Georgia used its size advantage on the interior to outscore the Commodores (5-9, 1-7) 40-26.
Dylan Disu scored 15 points for Vanderbilt, Pippen and Jordan Wright 12 each and Maxwell Evans 10.
Vanderbilt returns home to face Auburn on Tuesday. Georgia now is one of eight teams in the bunched up SEC with five or six conference wins. Georgia heads to Texas A&M for a Wednesday night tilt.
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