The beginning of the end for the Georgia men’s basketball team occurred in the final five minutes of Saturday’s loss to No. 15 Tennessee, following a missed defensive rebound.

With Georgia holding a precarious 71-67 lead, Tennessee’s Bobby Maze stepped to the free-throw line with the chance to cut Georgia’s lead to one possession. Maze hit the first, but missed the second only to have the rebound go through the hands of Georgia junior Albert Jackson and skitter to the Vols’ Tyler Smith.

Smith then dished the ball to a wide-open Cameron Tatum, who drained the game-tying 3-pointer on a rare four-point possession.

From that point, Georgia (9-7, 0-1 SEC) looked and played as if it were psychologically broken, as Tennessee (10-4, 1-0 SEC) finished the game on a 19-6 run.

“We sort of backed off a little bit with our intensity and it came back to bite us,” freshman Trey Thompkins said. “But now we know that we have to play a whole 40 minutes, like we’ve had to for the past few games. But I think now it’s starting to sink in and the next game we will prove that we are ready to play 40 minutes and not just 35.”

Rebounding, especially in the frontcourt, became a focus for the Dogs after allowing 23 of them in Tuesday’s loss to Georgia Tech. But it remained a glaring concern after being outrebounded 19-8 on the offensive glass and 48-35 overall. The Vols dominated the Bulldogs in the paint (51-24) and in second chance points (21-10).

“If [Tuesday's loss to Georgia] Tech was a sign, then this game from a rebounding standpoint was an exclamation point to our team of what we’ve got to do,” Georgia head coach Dennis Felton said.

“I feel like we let up and when you let up, they turn it on and when they turn it on, they don’t stop,” senior Terrance Woodbury said. “We just have to keep working hard, get better on the glass and do whatever we have to do to be able to compete on the glass because we didn’t compete at all the last few minutes on the glass.”

One of the more alarming signs regarding Georgia’s poor rebounding is the lack of production from Jackson and fellow big man Jeremy Price.

The 6-foot-11 Jackson, who started at center, did not record a point or a rebound in 13 minutes of action while the 6-foot-8 Price only grabbed one rebound in 21 minutes.

Felton defended his center after the game saying there may be other reasons for his lack of rebounds.

“A lot of times when Albert doesn’t have standout rebounding numbers it is because he is so busy keeping one of their primary rebounders off the glass and letting one of his teammates pick up the rebound,” Felton said. “Without watching the tape, I’m not sure, but it may have more to do with Albert not being aggressive enough.”

Heading into Wednesday’s tilt at Vanderbilt, the Dogs believe they can correct their problems and be successful going forward.

“We’ve basically lost the last three [games] the same way, in the last few minutes, because of a few breakdowns here and there,” freshman Dustin Ware said. “But I think we’ll correct it because we have a bunch of winners in that locker room, and I really believe we’ll correct that.”