Mar 16, 2008 5:21 pm US/Central
Georgia Wins SEC Crown With 4th Victory In 3 Days
Bulldogs Had Upset Kentucky, Then Mississippi State On Saturday
ATLANTA (AP) ―
A tornado. A doubleheader. An improbable trip to the NCAA tournament.
Georgia completed its remarkable run through the Southeastern Conference tournament on Sunday, building a big lead in the first half and holding on to beat Arkansas 66-57 in the championship game, earning its first trip to the NCAAs since 2002.
The Bulldogs (17-16) became just the third team in the tournament history to win four games in four days - actually, two came on the same day, an impromptu bit of scheduling forced by a tornado that slammed into the Georgia Dome.
Georgia got to cut down the nets on the home court of Georgia Tech, its bitter in-state rival and the replacement venue for the tournament after the dome was struck Friday night.
Arkansas (22-11) beat Vanderbilt and regular-season champion Tennessee on its way to the final.
Terrance Woodbury scored 16 points and Georgia headed to the NCAAs for the first time since the scandalous era of former coach Jim Harrick, which landed the program on probation and prompted it to decline a certain postseason trip with a 20-win team in 2003.
Dennis Felton took over as coach, with a mandate to clean things up. But when the Bulldogs finished last in the SEC East this season, there was plenty of speculation he would be out of the job as soon as the team made its expected exit from the league tournament.
Nothing went as expected in Atlanta, however.
The devastating tornado, which rumbled over the Georgia Dome and wreaked havoc downtown, forced a postponement of Georgia's quarterfinal game against Kentucky. Not only that, the tournament had to be moved to Alexander Memorial Coliseum on the campus of nearby Georgia Tech.
The revised schedule, which was vehemently opposed by Felton, forced the Georgia-Kentucky winner to play two games on Saturday. Amazingly, the Bulldogs knocked off the Wildcats for the first time ever in the tournament, then came back six hours later to beat SEC West champion Mississippi State.
Never showing any signs of fatigue, Georgia completed the run against Arkansas, racing to a 19-point lead and going on to their easiest victory of the weekend. The Bulldogs won their first three games by a total of 10 points with two of them decided in overtime.
"SEC champions!" Georgia's Billy Humphrey said. "Never doubt us again."
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