Cooks scores career-high 31 in Winthrop’s 87-82 loss at Georgia

Xavier Cooks scored a career-high 31 points in an 87-82 loss at Georgia on Tuesday in non-conference action.

The Eagles (5-4) outscored the Bulldogs (7-1) in the paint, 40-34, but Georgia won the battle of the boards 40-24 and finished with 19 second-chance points.

Georgia was led by Yante Maten’s 25 points as he paced five Bulldogs in double figures as Jackson added 14 and Mike Edwards scored 11 off the bench.

With the game tied 79-79 , Maten made a turn-around in the lane. After a missed jumper from Austin Awad, the Bulldogs went up four on a Turtle Jackson drive and score with 48 seconds to play.

In the first half, Eagles trailed by nine points (36-27) with 3:42 left but finished the half on an 11-4 run to trail 40-38 at the break.

In addition to Cooks’ 31 points, Winthrop got 12 points from Nych Smith and 11 from Anders Broman.

The Eagles will be off for exams and will not return to action until Dec. 16 when they face Alabama State on the road at 2 p.m.

This story was originally published December 5, 2017 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Cooks scores career-high 31 in Winthrop’s 87-82 loss at Georgia."