UA gives 'all we had' against No. 3 Georgia

ROB KEYS
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Don't be surprised if Georgia requests to play all of its SEC games on the road next season.
The third-ranked Lady Dogs completed a road sweep of league opponents with Sunday's 72-69 victory over an Arkansas team fighting desperately to keep alive its fading NCAA Tournament hopes.
"Today we gave all we had," said Arkansas junior guard Wendi Willits, who scored a team-best 17 points.
The effort by Arkansas (14-11, 4-8) wasn't quite enough against a Georgia team that won in typical fashion before a season-high Walton Arena crowd of 6,698. The Lady Dogs (26-2, 11-1) have gone 7-0 on the SEC road, thanks largely to fast starts.
"This game is indicative, totally, of the way we have played on the road," Georgia Coach Andy Landers said. "We've been able to build leads on good teams and then hang onto them."
That certainly was the case Sunday as Georgia led by as many as 21 points in the first half, then withstood a furious Arkansas rally.
Coco Miller led Georgia's first-half charge, scoring 17 of her game-high 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting before halftime. The Lady Dogs made 17 of 27 (63 percent) first-half field goals and shot 55.1 percent for the game.
Kelly Miller, Coco's twin sister, added 20 points.
"I think they're both good," Arkansas Coach Gary Blair said. "I'm just glad there isn't three of them."
Deana Nolan added 12 points for Georgia, and Tawana McDonald scored 11. McDonald also had a game-high 11 rebounds.
Arkansas got 15 points from Lonniya Bragg, 13 from India Lewis and 10 from Karyn Karlin.
The Lady Razorbacks scored just six points during a stretch of 11:26 in the first half as the Lady Bulldogs built a 37-16 lead. Lewis scored eight points in the final 3:55 of the first half, and Willits made a 12-foot runner in the closing seconds to get Arkansas within 44-32.
"It looked like when we got out in transition in the first half that we were going to put it away kind of early, but that's not the way it works when you've got shooters like India and Willits," Landers said.
Arkansas then opened the second half with a 14-2 run to tie the score at 46. Karlin capped the spurt with a 14-foot jumper with 15:42 to play.
Georgia countered with a 6-0 run and led the rest of the way.
The Lady Dogs stretched their lead to as much as nine points when Coco Miller hit a running jump shot from 13 feet with 7:28 remaining, but Arkansas made several charges in the closing minutes. The Lady Razorbacks got within four points or fewer five times in the final 5:26.
"That's all you can ask as an athlete or coach of your team: 'Can you go be the best team on the court for 40 minutes?' " Blair said. "We ran a little bit short today."
Georgia led 71-64 with 1:20 to play, but Willits sank a three-pointer with 1:01 remaining, and Amy Wright hit two free throws with 49.2 seconds left to get Arkansas within 71-69.
Wright then drew an offensive foul from Deana Nolan to give Arkansas a chance to tie or take the lead with 29.3 seconds to play. But as the shot clock wound down, Willits drove in the lane and missed a running one-hander.
"I took it to the hole hoping to draw the foul, and I just didn't draw the foul," Willits said.
Brandi Whitehead then fouled McDonald, who missed two free throws. But Karlin couldn't control the rebound after the second miss and lost the ball out of bounds.
Georgia then ran nearly eight seconds off the clock before Kelly Miller made 1 of 2 free throws with 1.2 seconds remaining to set the final margin.
With the loss, Arkansas remains in a tie for ninth place in the SEC with Kentucky. With a home game against Auburn and a matchup at Ole Miss remaining in the regular season, Arkansas is guaranteed no worse than 10th place.

This article was published on Monday, February 21, 2000

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