As much as Georgia looked as if they were going through the motions against Kennesaw on Wednesday, they came out the exact opposite in front of a sold-out crowd yesterday against Auburn. Georgia won 86-79 to move to 7-5 in the SEC. In a whistle-happy game that saw 60 fouls, 70 free-throws, and 5 Auburn disqualifications, Georgia looked much more like a team regrouping for a run at the postseason than they did earlier in the week.

They had control of the game from the start, mixing inside and outside on offense. They had 20 points before you could blink. Though it was a track meet for a while there in the first half without much defense, Georgia just had too much. Auburn wasn’t able to put many runs together, and Georgia extended the lead to double-digits by halftime.

Georgia led by as many as 21 in the second half before garbage time. Auburn hit some threes down the stretch and came within as close as six points, but Georgia held on and hit enough foul shots and baskets to hold them off. The game was disjointed and over-officiated in the second half, and that can’t take away from the outstanding effort.

Georgia had outstanding offensive balance with six players scoring at least nine points. Sundiata Gaines scored 21 points and wasn’t far away from a triple-double. His penetration made the offense work – he was able to drive and either get a shot off, get fouled (more often than not), or dish to Brown. This is Gaines at his best, and, with the help of a few timely three-pointers, this is the strength of the Georgia offense. If they attack this way in their remaining games, we should be just fine. For the second straight game, Georgia didn’t stand around outside jacking three-pointers. Though they did attempt 21 from outside, the 43% success rate shows that those shots weren’t forced and came from within the offense, usually after a kickout from penetration.

Next up is a trip to Ole Miss where the Rebels will be smarting from a bad loss at Arkansas.