Georgia vs. South Florida: Mark Fox's defense unable to finish strong

After the Georgia Bulldogs' 64-53 loss to the South Florida Bulls on Friday night in Tampa, Fla., head coach Mark Fox talked about the team running out of steam at the end, particularly on the defensive end.

The Bulldogs held a brief second-half lead after Kentavious Caldwell-Pope - who would lead the team in scoring with 19 points - put away a fastbreak dunk to make it a 40-39 game at the midway point. However, Georgia wasn't able to build off of the momentum, falling behind by four points a few minutes later, and seeing the deficit grow from there. Fox acknowledged the team's failures on defense during that stretch to The Red & Black's Connor Smolensky:

"We just didn’t get the stops we needed to get."

That four-point deficit grew to seven when the Bulldogs allowed South Florida's Victor Rudd to hit a big three-pointer with less than two minutes remaining in the game, and the Bulls put the game away with free throws the rest of the way after Georgia failed to match those points down the stretch. However, until that point, Fox was encouraged by the team's play on offense:

"Offensively in the second half we were playing very well until the end when we had to fire up some desperation shots. I thought offensively we had some pretty good numbers."

The Bulldogs, who fell to 2-5 with the loss, will take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Tuesday in Atlanta.