Georgia basketball snags road win over Wake Forest to advance to NIT quarterfinals

There’s even more Georgia basketball ahead in the final week of March.

The Bulldogs assured that by snagging a road win Sunday at Wake Forest 72-66 in a second round NIT game.

Georgia stays on the road to play at Ohio State Tuesday in a quarterfinal matchup.

The Bulldogs’ season already has gone the latest on the calendar since March 26, 1998 in an NIT third-place win over Fresno State in Ron Jirsa’s first season. That’s a long season considering this team took a summer trip to Italy back in August.

More: Georgia basketball coach Mike White: Revved-up Stegeman home fans 'puts us in the game'

More: Georgia basketball coach Mike White: 5-star Asa Newell 'has a chance to be special player'

Georgia buried 10 of 17 3-pointers in the first half to run out to a 39-24 lead with 4 from guard Noah Thomasson (19 points) and 3 from guard Justin Hill (21 points) and extended the lead to 49-30 after hitting 4 of its first 5 shots in the second half.

The Bulldogs held on after Wake Forest trimmed the lead to 57-52 on a score in the lane from Andrew Carr (31 points) with 6:39 to go. Georgia went on a 7-2 run that included a 3-pointer from freshman Dylan James who had a career-high 14 points.

"We got up early, they got on a run, but we didn't back down," Hill said on the Georgia radio postgame show. "We came back with a run of our own and finished the game out so it feels great."

Thomasson went 5 of 8 on 3s including with one making one with 2:51 to go that became a four-point play. Wake Forest cut the lead to four in the final minutes, but the Bulldogs hit four free throws.

Georgia has won back-to-back games for the first time since winning 10 straight from Nov. 24 to Jan. 10.

Georgia basketball NIT run longest in quarter century

Georgia (19-16) advanced past the second round for the first time in its last seven NIT appearances since that 1998 NIT.

It will play the Buckeyes (22-13) in Columbus in a 7 p.m. game on ESPN.

Ohio State defeated Virginia Tech 81-73 Saturday night in Columbus.

The winner moves on to the NIT semifinals April 2 in Indianapolis.

The Buckeyes fired Chris Holtmann as coach Feb. 14 and have now removed the interim tag from coach Jake Dieber who replaced him.

The programs have met in basketball only once before, an 84-80 overtime win for the Bulldogs on Dec. 28, 1977 in Louisville.

Injuries sideline starters on both Georgia Bulldogs and Wake Forest

Wake Forest (21-14) was without its top scorer due to an ankle injury and Georgia missed its top post player due to illness.

Demon Deacons' guard Hunter Sallis, who averaged 18 points and 4.1 rebounds per game, played 40 minutes in the 87-76 first-round win over Appalachian State. He finished that game with 16 points.

The junior from Omaha, a first-team All-SEC pick, led Wake Forest with 75 3-pointers and a 40.5 3-point percentage.

Hill said he noticed Sallis in a boot during pregame shootaround but said the game plan remained the same.

Georgia center Russel Tchewa had started every game this season and led the team in rebounding at 6.6 per game to go along with 7.8 points per game. Coach Mike White said on Georgia’s pregame radio show that Tchewa hadn’t practiced since the win over Xavier on Tuesday.

Senior Frank Anselem-Ibe, who averaged just 7.4 minutes per game this season, got his first start of the season in place of Tchewa. He had 8 rebounds, 2 blocks and 3 assists.

"I thought our guys rallied around the fact that we were a little bit shorthanded," White said. "That's about as hard as we've played especially in a first half on the road all year."

Georgia was without Jabri Abdur-Rahim (ankle) for the sixth straight game and reserve RJ Sunahara (knee) also missed the game.

A winning homecoming for Georgia Bulldog Silas Demary

Silas Demary expected to be “very jacked,” for a homecoming game back in his home state.

The freshman point guard is from Raleigh, about 18 miles away from Winston-Salem.

“Just to get before a whole lot of family and friends will be good for me,” Demary said beforehand.

Demary entered the game leading Georgia in steals (51), second in assists (85) and third in scoring (9.7 points per game).

He had a quiet game with 6 points—all in the second half--along with 5 rebounds and an assist. His driving layup with 14:02 to go ended an 8-0 Wake run after they had trimmed the Georgia lead to 49-38 and then drew a charge with under 12 minutes to go.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Georgia basketball extended its season with NIT win at Wake Forest