The Thursday GoMocs.com Top 10 Moments series continues today with No. 6. Check the countdown out here with
No. 7,
No. 8,
No. 9 and
No. 10.
The age-old adage is "you never get a second chance to make a first impression".
Matt McCall and his staff didn't need one.
His coaching era got off to an eye-catching start with a 92-90 overtime win at Georgia. It was a game that the Mocs dominated early, gave up the lead and roared to the finish.
The Bulldogs barely had a chance to blink before the lead reached double digits.
Johnathan Burroughs-Cook sliced and diced the UGA defense for 23 points, but the first two made it 13-3 just under six minutes into the contest.
via GIPHY
Time and again in the first half and early second, the Mocs withstood runs to re-establish a comfortable margin. This three-point play by
Casey Jones made it 11, the largest lead of the game, with 18:16 to go.
Georgia took over from there. A 35-18 run gave the home team a 66-60 lead with 5:57 to play. Thoughts away from the bench shifted to how well the team played and hoping they kept it close the rest of the way so people would recognize quickly by the score how well they played.
Thoughts on the bench and on the floor were squarely on winning.
"Coach (McCall) preaches to us at practice that we need to 'fight the circumstance'," Jones stated immediately after the game. "When we went down, that's what he was saying on the bench. The players were saying it on the bench.
"We just kept fighting. We get put in situations in practice, and they say they make it harder in practice than in a game, and that's what it was today."
Eric Robertson shared similar recollections when talking about the win recently.
Jones scored seven of the next nine points sparking a 9-0 UTC spurt for a three-point cushion, 69-66 with 3:09 to go. He capped it with this three-pointer.
via GIPHY
The game went into overtime. Once again the Mocs jumped out quickly with a Jones basket followed by this three from Robertson.
via GIPHY
Greg Pryor followed with a triple of his own for a 7-0 start to OT. Yante Maten got the Bulldogs on the board with two free throws. As you can see here,
Justin Tuoyo had a rather emphatic response.
via GIPHY
The OT was somewhat similar to regulation. The good guys built a lead while UGA battled back to no avail. It was the first "Power 5" win for the program since 2004's triumph at Tennessee.
Four starters fouled out for the Mocs. It didn't matter. The bench's play was a clear harbinger of the season to come. Burroughs-Cook's 23 was augmented by two key threes from freshman
Peyton Woods.
Chuck Ester's team-high eight rebounds was balanced by
Dee Oldham's timely plays.
It was a team effort. But we digress. Let's get back to where we started for goodness sakes. It was the start of the McCall Era and what a start it was. Thoughts looking back from the ball coach:
