UGA-Santa Clara Live Blog

This isn't going to be nearly as detailed as our football live blogs have been, but I'll try to keep up a bit with it. I'll preface, however, by saying I'm still working on my football notebook for today, so we'll see how it goes.

-- Through five minutes, Georgia has a 9-8 lead -- not exactly a scoring frenzy. Albert Jackson is playing after missing Friday's game and has looked good so far. Trey Thompkins his making his first appearance of the season, too.

-- 12:37 left in the first and Thompkins has his first basket of the year, a mid-range jumper that gives Georgia an 11-10 lead. Thompkins definitely looks out of shape, however, and has seemed a bit reluctant to get physical in the post.

-- If you were to do a shot every time someone made a basket tonight, I'm fairly certain no one would leave drunk. 13-10 Georgia with 9:46 left in the half.

-- Ben Dowdell on Santa Clara just threw down the ball after a backcourt violation. The ball bounced over to the press table, where I made as nice a rebound as anyone on Georgia has so far. I'd also like to remind Dennis Felton that I have four full years of eligibility remaining. Tied 13-13 with 7:40 remaining in the half.

-- 6:27 left and Santa Clara has a 15-13 lead. Your offensive stars so far: Albert Jackson for UGA and John Bryant for SC -- both of whom have six points. Combined, the two teams are 12-of-39 shooting, including 0-5 from beyond the arc.

-- Terrance Woodbury finally finds his stroke, hitting a long jumper to put the Dawgs up 17-15 with 3:25 to play in the half. Those were his first points of the game.

-- To call this crowd sparse would be an insult to wide open spaces. I'd estimate roughly 500 people here. I can't for the life of me figure why the NIT organizers would send two teams across the country to play in front of no one.

-- Woodbury hits from 3 to give Georgia a 24-16 lead. The Dawgs are on an 11-1 run having finally found their shooting touch.

-- Santa Clara hits a 3 in the final minute to pull within five at the half. OK, Georgia notes to finish.

-- Rocking out to some Van Halen at halftime. Terrance Woodbury's 0-of-5 start to the game did to Georgia's offense what Sammy Hagar did to Van Halen, but his 3-of-3 finish was much like David Lee Roth's reunion with the band. Hopefully the hot streak lasts longer than Roth's second stint with VH.

-- Some other numbers: Albert Jackson is 4-of-6 shooting and leads the Bulldogs with four boards; Trey Thompkins played nine minutes in the first half, which is about 8 minutes and 40 seconds more than I was expecting; Georgia is shooting 35.5 percent for the half, but that's better than Santa Clara's 28 percent; Rebounds are even at 20 apiece; UGA has seven turnovers, SC has 11.

-- Georgia's backcourt in the first half: 3-of-12 shooting. That's not going to get it done.

-- I know the whole "Sopranos" finale really pushed "Don't Stop Believing" back into the national consciousness, but for my money, "Separate Ways" is definitely Journey's best tune.

-- Jeremy Price hits his first basket of the game. He has really struggled with his shooting so far this season. But then again, who hasn't?

-- 29-all four minutes into the second half. The spread on this game, should you care about such things, was Santa Clara plus six. I would have been all over that. Oh, sorry... 31-29 Santa Clara.

-- Just in case you're interested in such things (although for completely different reasons), Syracuse is up by six on Florida with 3:30 to play. Go Cuse.

-- Chris Barnes gives Georgia the lead once again -- 33-31 with 14 to play. No signs of Thompkins in the second half. He's brutally out of shape from all the preseason injuries. Prior to this weekend, he had not participated in a full practice since arriving at Georgia.

-- 12:30 to go, and Thompkins is back in.

-- From Georgia's game notes: "Travis Leslie: Surprisingly, he is Georgia's top surprise this year." That was from Georgia's game notes. Surprisingly.

-- Now, I'm willing to consider that Santa Clara is just terrible on offense, but Georgia's D has actually looked pretty solid with eight steals and seven blocks. The Dogs are being outrebounded, however, 25-20 so far.

-- Santa Clara's John Bryant is easily the biggest guy on the court. Unfortunately for them, they also have three other players on the court right now who would not meet the height requirement for several of the more thrilling rides at Six Flags.

-- Cuse, baby! This already gives us more big non-conference wins than we had all last year. Why didn't you come back for a second season Donte Green?!? Georgia's up 38-34 with 9:40 left to go here.

-- Some guy on Santa Clara named Calvin Johnson just hit a bucket to cut the Dawgs' lead to three. Somewhere Reggie Ball is saying, "Oh, that's what it looks like when Calvin Johnson scores on Georgia."

-- If anyone wants to come on down to Stegeman to catch the final 8 minutes, there are still plenty of great seats left.

-- Just a nice note from the out-of-town scores: Loyola of Chicago, who beat Georgia last week, just lost to Cornell. Smart kids up there at Cornell.

-- Thompkins hits two from the line, giving him 8 points for the game. All things considered, this hasn't been a bad performance for the freshman, who you really couldn't have expected much from before tip off.

-- Woodbury has 12 now, tying him with Bryant as the game's high scorer. He has disappeared for large chunks of the game, though, and what Georgia needs -- given all the youth on the roster -- is for him to be more consistent.

-- Twenty-four turnovers in the game for Santa Clara and they are still only down 3. Also, did you know Santa Clara is the Broncos?

-- I thought the Packers had a good defense. Drew Brees has officially sunk my fantasy season (although, to be fair, Jason Witten, Frank Gore and Santonio Holmes have been the true culprits).

-- Two more from the line for Thompkins gives him 10 for the game and gives Georgia a seven-point lead with 2 minutes to play.

-- Albert Jackson hits two from the line. Those are just his third and fourth points in the half after playing a major role in the first-half scoring. One minute to go and UGA has a 7-point lead.

-- Swansey misses two from the line. Um, what exactly is he supposed to be good at again? A Santa Clara travel gives the ball back to Georgia, while SC's bench is yelling to foul Swansey. Instead they get Woodbury, who'll go to the line for two with the Dawgs up four and 35 ticks left on the clock.

-- SC hits two at the line to pull back to within four. Corey Bulter will shoot two for Georgia. 21.3 left in the game. I wonder if there's even one Santa Clara fan here that isn't related to someone on the team.

-- Butler hits two, Jackson plays some fantastic defense on Bryant, and the Dawgs run out the clock to preserve a 54-48 win.

It was ugly -- as they all have been so far -- but unless MVSU pulls a total 180 from their game against Arizona earlier today (they shot 22 percent for the game) Georgia will be off to a 5-1 start. Win's a win I guess, but this could get ugly against Illinois and Virginia Tech in the next couple weeks.