‘Terrible start,’ 3-pointers sink Dogs at UMass

Georgia’s basketball team struggled early Saturday and never recovered as it suffered a 72-62 loss to UMass on the road.

Georgia falls to 7-2, while UMass improves to 6-5. Georgia returns home Tuesday to host Georgia Tech.

UMass led 16-2 and had a 19-point lead at the half, 43-24.

“We got off to a terrible start,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “We had not practiced well, and we played the exact same way. The defense wasn’t near what it needs to be at to win on the road. We didn’t play well, but give UMass credit for taking the first swing. In the second half, we started to look like ourselves, but you can’t dig that big of a hole.”

Georgia senior forward Yante Maten scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds, both game-highs.

Luwane Pipkins scored 10 of his 17 points in the opening five minutes for UMass, with freshman Carl Pierre adding 15 points on a careerbest five 3-pointers.

It was the 10th win for UMass over an SEC opponent and the first since a 92-90 victory against LSU at home on Nov. 12, 2013.

The Minutemen were 12 of 22 from behind the arc.

Georgia was coming off an 11-day break for final exams.

It was Maten’s fourth 20-point game of the year and 25th at UGA. He entered needing 17 points to pass Charles Mann and Carlos Strong for 13th on UGA’s career scoring list. He’s 12 points away from tying James Banks.

The Bulldogs, winners over three 2017 NCAA Tournament teams in Saint Mary’s, Marquette and Winthrop, were off to their best start since beginning the 200607 season at 8-1.

Tennessee: Knoxville typically isn’t a very hospitable host to defending national champions.

A rare sellout crowd will try to make sure that pattern continues today when No. 7 North Carolina faces the 20th-ranked Volunteers in Knoxville (3 p.m., ESPN) for the first time since 1949.

Tennessee has won each

of the past five times it has hosted a defending national champion, a stretch that includes victories over Kentucky (in February 1999 and February 2013 ), Florida (February 2007 and February 2008) and Connecticut ( January 2012 ).

Now that they’re back in the Top 25 for the first time in seven years , the Vols have a chance to make a statement that they’ve returned to national relevance. After making the NCAA Tournament six straight times under Bruce Pearl from 2006-11, Tennessee has been back just once in the six years since.

“We want to be a program that’s big on everybody’s schedule,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “We don’t want to be a program where Tennessee’s coming and (it’s) no big deal. We want people to know, hey, we have a good basketball program. We’re not there yet. We’re working to get there, but we’re not there yet.”

Tennessee is making positive steps in Barnes’ third season.

The Vols were picked before the season to finish 13th out of 14 teams in the Southeastern Conference, but they’ve gotten off to a fast start that includes a road win at Georgia Tech and neutral-site victories over No. 17 Purdue and North Carolina State . Their only loss of the season came when they squandered a 12-point halftime lead over No. 1 Villanova in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Today’s game will attract the first capacity crowd at the 21,678-seat Thompson-Boling Arena since a February 2015 loss to Kentucky It’s the first time two ranked men’s teams have faced each other in this building since No. 19 Tennessee defeated No. 2 Kentucky on Feb. 27, 2010.

Tennessee visited Chapel Hill last year and led North Carolina by as many as 15 points before the Tar Heels, playing without point guard Joel Berry II, rallied for a 73-71 victory.