Fantastic Freshmen Leading the Lady Bulldogs Early

Coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson (Coach Abe) and Georgia's women's basketball team are only one game into the season, but the Lady Bulldog freshmen are already showing up and showing out. In Monday's season opening 96-52 over North Carolina Central, Georgia started two freshmen in Mia Woolfolk and Trinity Turner. The only other time two freshmen started in a season opener was Kelly and Coco Miller in 1997.

Not only did this fantastic freshman duo start, they shined. Woolfolk, a 6-foot-3 forward, led the Lady Bulldogs with 18 points and 13 rebounds. Turner, a 5-foot-6 point guard, went for 15 points, six rebounds, and three steals. Woolfolk told Georgia Sports Communications that she did have some pregame jitters.

"It was a little different for me, having nerves before the game," she said, adding that there will be "no more nerves" moving forward.

The two Lady Bulldogs from the freshman class coming off the bench are twin sisters Summer and Indya Davis, who played 21 minutes and 17 minutes respectfully. Summer pitched in with 11 points, five rebounds and four assists. Indya put up seven points, four rebounds and two assists in her debut. Redshirt freshman Miyah Verse scored nine points to give the five freshman a total of 60 points out of the 96 points scored.

This class of four freshmen ended the 2024 recruiting cycle as the 16th ranked class in the nation, with all four coming in as Top 100 prospects. Coach Abe was asked early in her post game press conference about the group. "They're great. They're very, very, very talented. For sure." While the team is led by two returning seniors in Asia Avinger and De'Mauri Flournoy, they're going to need these freshmen to continue to produce at a high level to be able to compete in the SEC. The conference currently has seven teams ranked in the top 25.

Asked about having so many new faces playing together and the new player having a good debut, Coach Abe pointed to the senior leadership as one reason why they were able to put together an impressive debut. "They're just a different team this year. They're fun, they're together. The one thing they all do is play hard. You can tell that everybody plays hard (with an emphasis on hard). Almost to the point of where I'm like "calm down, just slow it down". I really think that starts with Asia, because Asia plays extremely hard. So if you have a leader like that, and Roxie (Roxane Makolo) plays extremely hard, and they're upperclassmen, and so the freshmen, they don't think they can take plays off, or they don't think they can take a run off. They got some upperclassmen that are pushing them every day."

Georgia fans will have another chance to see what thesehard working freshmen are all about tonight, as the Lady Bulldogs host Houstion at Stegman Colesium at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on SEC Network +.