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Georgia Advances, Beats Arizona

ATHENS, Ga. — Georgia couldn't stand prosperity. It almost knocked the Lady Bulldogs out of the NCAA tournament.

Fortunately for Georgia, Arizona's late rally only put a scare into the nation's sixth-ranked team, who almost blew a late 18-point lead.

Kedra Holland-Corn made one free throw and Signe Antvorskov added two more in the closing seconds to preserve Georgia's 80-74 victory Sunday over Arizona in the NCAA West Region second round.

"Once we had the big lead, I thought we played terrible,'' said Georgia Coach Andy Landers. "We made far too many turnovers.''

Arizona's three-point basket by Adia Barnes with 35 seconds left got the Wildcats within 77-74, keying a 25-10 run in the last five minutes after Georgia had taken a 67-49 lead with 5:32 left.

"It's one thing for Arizona to come in and steal the ball, and I applaud them for that, but it's another for us to throw it to them.''

Georgia (24-5), the No. 2 seed, advanced to the region final in Missoula, Mont., next weekend. Arizona (23-8), seeded seventh, ended its most successful season with its first NCAA appearance.

"I'm real proud of our team's effort,'' said Arizona freshman point guard, Lisa Griffith, who had 14 points. "We'll be back next year.''

Holland-Corn, who led Georgia with 20 points, made one of two free throws with 45 seconds left for a 78-74 lead. Antvorskov then rebounded an Arizona miss, was fouled, and made both ends of a 1-and-1 with five seconds left to clinch the victory. The sophomore made 6-of-6 free throws in the final 1:31 for all six of her points.

"We showed a lack of experience at the end of the game, but we have a lot to build on for next year,'' said Adia Barnes, the junior forward, who leads the team in scoring and had 24 points against Georgia.

Pam Irwin came off the bench to add 17 points for the Lady Dogs, who have made the NCAA Final Four the last two seasons. Tracy Henderson added 11 points and La'Keshia Frett had 10.

"The bench play was all we had,'' said Landers. "Pam played very well, but our starting post players [Henderson and Tiffany Walker] had only three rebounds. There's no excuse.''

Barnes had 16 of her 24 points in the first half. Mikko Giordano added 16.

Holland-Corn scored 10 of her 13 first-half points in a two-minute spurt just before intermission, helping the Lady Dogs to a 40-35 lead at halftime.

Barnes, Arizona's leading scorer, had the Wildcats' first 12 points and gave Arizona its only lead of the game at 24-23 on a layup 6:06 before intermission. She sat out the final 4:43 when she got her third personal foul.

Georgia ran out to a 10-1 spurt at the start of the second half for a 50-38 lead and built its lead to 18 on three different occasions before Arizona's late rush.