ATHENS — Braelen Bridges and Kario Oquendo scored 12 points apiece in leading Georgia to a 64-49 victory over Morehouse in the Bulldogs’ exhibition home opener on Friday.
“I loved the way our team came out and was aggressive,” UGA coach Tom Crean said. “We’ve been struggling with deflections, but had 53 tonight, these guys got after it.”
Georgia held a 32-18 lead at the halftime break over the Division ll school, paced by Bridges’ 8 first-half points on 4-of-5 shooting.
The 6-foot-11 Bridges, who played his high school basketball at Union Grove High School in McDonough, averaged 10.1 points and 5 rebounds per game last season at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Oquendo, an explosive and athletic 6-4 wing built more like a running back who transferred in from Florida Southwestern State, scored his 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the floor and 3-of-8 from the free-throw line, driving to the rim at each opportunity.
Georgia also got 10 points from Gonzaga grad transfer Aaron Cook, who led the team with 36 minutes played.
Crean, starting his fourth year at the helm, has 10 newcomers including seven transfers.
These Bulldogs, longer and taller than those of the past two seasons, were advertised to be a better group of shooters than UGA has seen in the past.
That wasn’t necessarily the case on Friday — the team shot just 26.9 percent from 3-point range and 50 percent from the free-throw line.
Jaxon Etter, who scored 9 points and was 3-of-6 from beyond the 3-point arc, said this team will show the necessary improvement.
“The difference with this group is everybody gets extra work in,” Etter said. “It’s something that was not as prominent last year as it is this year.
“It didn’t pay off tonight, but I have complete confidence in us.”
Crean said he does, too.
“We’re missing 3s we’ll make and we’re missing free throws we’ll make,” Crean said. “I’m not worried about that. We’re going to be a very good free-throw shooting team. That was a couple of little technique things.”
Crean said ball movement is an area the Bulldogs need to improve on offense.
“We have to keep understanding we need to make that next pass,” Crean said. “We’ll get it, we’re learning more and more.”
The Bulldogs, coming off a 14-12 campaign last season, were picked to finish last in the SEC in a preseason vote of selected media.
Bridges said the preseason pick is “motivation for us to go harder in practice and stay humble.”
“When we’re winning,” Bridges said, “they’ll be shocked.”
Georgia lost its exhibition opener on the road on Oct. 24 in Charlotte, falling 76-65 to the 49ers.
The Bulldogs open the regular season at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night against Florida International before traveling to Cincinnati next Saturday night to face the Bearcats.
“The biggest thing we have to understand is the physicality needed,” Crean said. “We have to play with more leverage and play more physical.” We have to figure out how to play harder, longer.”
