South Bound & Down
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SEC Basketball: Yante Maten and Collin Sexton make Wooden Award list

By Richard Gnann

Collin Sexton #2 of the Alabama Crimson Tide and SEC basketball . (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Collin Sexton #2 of the Alabama Crimson Tide and SEC basketball . (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) /
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ATHENS, GA - JANUARY 04: Yante Maten #1 of the Georgia Bulldogs and SEC basketball drives. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images)
ATHENS, GA - JANUARY 04: Yante Maten #1 of the Georgia Bulldogs and SEC basketball drives. (Photo by Mike Comer/Getty Images) /

Yante Maten

Maten made the Midseason Top 25 list after his and the team’s worst game of the season, a 68 – 57 loss to Missouri. Maten scored nine with two rebounds in 27 minutes. His counterpart, freshman Jontay Porter, registered a double-double with 15 points and ten rebounds.

Maten’s poor performance followed his best game of the season, a home dismissal of Alabama. Against the Tide, Maten scored 26 points with 11 rebounds. He also shot his best three-point percentage of the season, 57.1 percent, on a career-high four for seven.

Physical defense challenges

The Missouri game demonstrates why Maten will not make the cut to twenty in February. Every team Georgia faces is going to throw every rock in the yard at Yante Maten. From time to time through out his career, Maten has not responded to the physical attacks.

South Carolina started the trend of physically pounding Georgia in last year’s defeat of the Dawgs in Athens. South Carolina visits Georgia on Saturday, and you can be sure that is still  the Gamecock’s plan. For Maten and Georgia to succeed, Yante Maten must accept the physical challenge every night.

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