2016 NIT: Georgia Bulldogs Beat Belmont 93-84

The Georgia Bulldogs advanced in the NIT by taking down the Atlantic Sun's Belmont 93-84 in their first round game.

The most UGA would trail in the entire game was when Belmont nailed a three about a minute into the game and followed it with a layup a little later to make the score 5-2. Kenny Gaines and Yante Maten hit back-to-back triple to take a lead the Bulldogs wouldn't relinquish. Despite Georgia taking a double digit lead after the half, Belmont did battle back and make it interesting towards the end.

The Bulldogs' lead fell to as little as two at 71-69 at the 5:39 mark, and the lead was just four with two minutes to go. J.J. Frazier hit a three with 1:47 left to push it to seven, and he made all eight of his free throw the attempts the rest of the way to seal the victory.

Maten led all scorers with a career high 33 points, and he grabbed ten rebounds to go along with them. Charles Mann was next with 23 points, which included four three pointers, while Frazier finished with 16 points and eight assists. The Bulldogs shot a crisp 53.6% and outrebounded Belmont 32-28.

Georgia's next game will be on Monday out in California against 2-seed St. Mary's, which beat 7-seed New Mexico State yesterday.