Georgia Women’s Basketball Qualifies for SEC Tournament Title Game, Defeats No.2 Texas A&M

ATHENS – Georgia made their way into the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament Championship game for the first time since 2004 with a victory over No.2-ranked Texas A&M on Saturday.

The 16th-seeded Lady Bulldogs took a 74-68 victory over SEC regular-season champion Aggies (23-2) in the semi-finals at Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, SC

This is Georgia’s first victory over a Top 5 ranked team since winning over Stanford in the Sweet 16 of the 2013 NCAA Tournament.

SEC Coach of the Year Joni Taylor and his No.4 seeded team face No.2 seed South Carolina at 2 p.m. Sunday (TV: ESPN2). The Gameocks beat Tennessee 67-52 in the other semi.

South Carolina defeated UGA 62-50 when they met earlier this season in Columbia on Jan.21.

Taylor will celebrate his 42nd birthday on Sunday.

“I’m extremely happy with the program,” said Taylor, who is in her sixth season as head coach since taking over the program from coaching legend Andy Landers.

“We’re talking about checkboxes, and we keep doing it, and they’re doing it the right way.”

Senior Maya Caldwell led the Bulldogs with 19 points, matching her season 7 of 12 record, while senior Jenna Staiti recorded a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds with 6 blocked shots.

Taylor noted that Staiti only played 12 minutes when the teams first met this season at College Station, a 60-48 Aggies win on Jan.31.

Junior guard Mikayla Coombs scored a career-high 12 points for the Lady Bulldogs.

With the loss of Texas A&M, this is the first time since 2014 that the SEC regular season champion has failed to advance to the SEC tournament final.

“We want to finish strong,” said Caldwell, one of the four senior members of the UGA roster. “It’s our (senior) last year together and our last season together, and we know what we want, and we’re going to go get it.

Georgia hasn’t won the SEC women’s basketball tournament since 2001.

“Everyone’s really excited, (but) there isn’t a lot of up and down jumps and cheers here,” Caldwell said. “We know we still have work to do. We haven’t finished yet.

UGA has won the SEC tournament championship four times (1983, 1984, 1986 and 2001).

SEC network screenshot