Box Score ATHENS, Ga. – A cold shooting day doomed the Norfolk State men's basketball team in a 63-50 loss to Georgia on Saturday afternoon at the Stegeman Coliseum.
 
NSU shot less than 30 percent against the Bulldogs despite having a fairly big edge on the offensive glass. NSU did keep the game close, getting to within four early in the second half and trailing by just seven with less than nine minutes to go.
 
Foul trouble, though, doomed the Spartans (9-7), as they finished with 26 on the day and had to watch several starters sit in the first half.
 
NSU had an 18-7 edge in offensive boards, leading to a 21-10 advantage in second chance points. Junior Jeff Short was the only player in double figures with 16 for the Spartans, who suffered their second straight loss after winning seven of the previous nine games.
 
J.J. Frazier led Georgia (9-3) with 20 points on 7-of-8 shooting. He hit three 3-pointers in the second half when NSU was looking to make a comeback.
 
Down by 13 at the half, the Spartans scored the first eight points of the second half, including a pair of 3-pointers by junior D'Shon Taylor, before Georgia finally got on the board with less than 14 minutes on the clock. The Spartans got to within four at 38-34 when Short sank a 3-pointer at the 13:32 mark.
 
The Bulldogs answered right back by scoring seven straight to push their advantage back to double-digits. Short hit a tough runner over a defender to get NSU to within seven with a little less than nine minutes remaining, but the Spartans got no closer than that the rest of the way.
 
Norfolk State hit 19-of-65 (29.2 percent) for the game, compared to a 21-of-49 effort (42.9 percent) for the Bulldogs.
 
Each team tallied just eight turnovers in the contest, while the Bulldogs outscored the Spartans 15-0 in fastbreak points. Georgia committed just 12 fouls in the game – NSU had 26 – while shooting 14-of-21 from the foul line. The Spartans, on the other hand, made 5-of-8.
 
The Spartans missed several open shots early on as they fell behind by a 7-2 margin, a deficit that eventually reached seven points on several different occasions. Down 18-11 with a little more than eight minutes to go in the half, the Spartans got three straight free throws from Short and a trey from freshman Malik Gray in the left corner to cut the deficit to one, 18-17, at the 7:03 mark.
 
The Spartans went more than four minutes without a field goal as Georgia responded with an 11-1 run to jump back ahead by 11, 29-18. Short drained another 3-pointer with less than three minutes to go, but Charles Mann got the kind bounce on his last second trey to give the Bulldogs a 36-23 lead at the break.
 
The big story of the first half, though, was NSU's foul trouble. Taylor, Jamel Fuentes and RaShid Gaston averaged just nine minutes in the first half as each picked up two fouls. Freshman Jordan Butler picked up four fouls before intermission as the Spartans were forced to play shorthanded.
 
Gaston added nine points, six boards and two blocks, breaking a streak of 10 games in which he had grabbed 10 or more rebounds. Taylor added eight points and seven boards, helping NSU finish with a 43-37 edge on the glass.
 
Butler had three blocks, as the teams combined for 15 in the game.
 
Mann had 10 points, 10 boards and four assists for Georgia
 
NSU will head right back out on the road to take on Princeton on Tuesday at 7 p.m.