Auburn (17-12, 6-10 in SEC) @ Georgia (17-12, 8-8 in SEC)
6:30 EST – SEC Network
Georgia comes into the matchup as the 8th place team in the SEC. The Bulldogs have won four of their last five games and still have NCAA tournament aspirations. They rank no. 52 in the RPI (rankings power index) and have the no. 19 SOS (strength of schedule) in the country.
Auburn posts the same overall record as Georgia coming into this game, but the Tigers are 6-10 in the conference and trending in the wrong direction. They have lost four of their last five games, with the only win coming against LSU, a team with a not-so-impressive 1-15 SEC record. The Tigers rank no. 83 in the RPI.
When these two teams met back in December, Georgia won 96-84 on the road. But things may be different this time for the Yante Maten-less Bulldogs. Maten scored 31 points and grabbed 8 rebounds that night.
In that matchup Auburn carried a 51-43 lead into halftime, but Georgia came back. After scoring 51 points in the first half, the Tigers managed just 33 points in the second half.
Mustapha Heron led Auburn with 19 points, but it wasn’t enough. Behind Maten’s 31 and J.J. Frazier’s 27, the Bulldogs closed the game on a 20-8 run in the game’s final seven minutes.