Trey Thompkins

ATLANTA — Ten months ago, Dennis Felton swung a net wildly atop a ladder in this arena, celebrating an SEC tournament championship and the opportunity to keep his job as Georgia coach. A tornado forced the tournament’s move to Georgia Tech’s campus, creating a surreal scene at Alexander Memorial Coliseum as Georgia claimed the tournament title.

Atlanta was under another tornado watch during a stormy Monday night. But the Bulldogs could not replicate last March’s scene in this building Tuesday night, as they lost 67-62 to Georgia Tech to conclude a lackluster preconference schedule.

Georgia is 9-6 with losses to Loyola-Chicago, Western Kentucky and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and in 10 short months, the fanfare surrounding Felton is diminished. The youthful Bulldogs open SEC play Saturday at home against Tennessee.

“We’ve had some tough losses,” sophomore guard Zac Swansey said, “but I thought we were the better team in a lot of those games.”

The loss to Georgia Tech (9-5) encapsulated most of Georgia’s losses this year — big lead early, shaky late and the look of a young team still lacking the poise to finish close games. The Bulldogs led most of the game and extended their lead to 13 points, 45-32, early in the second half.

But the Bulldogs broke down against Georgia Tech’s full-court press, and even when they beat the pressure they would miss layups or have them blocked. The Yellow Jackets, who finally drew even at 51-51, blocked eight shots and outrebounded Georgia by 13 in the second half.

“The game was lost on the glass, without a doubt,” Felton said. “I think about their eight blocks and I can almost count them in my head and have an easy time. Almost all of them were point-blank shots.

“If you counter the turnovers we had against pressure, the entire fabric of the game is different. But they made an almost hard-to-believe number of plays at the rim to erase shots.”

Georgia Tech took the lead for good on Zachery Peacock’s driving layup to put his team ahead 62-60 lead with 1:22 remaining. Georgia’s Travis Leslie, one of three freshmen playing major roles, traveled before a dunk attempt on the other end, and Gani Lawal made his dunk off of a miss to give the Yellow Jackets a 64-60 lead.

Trailing by three points, senior Terrance Woodbury missed a wild 3-pointer in the left corner with four seconds remaining.

“I was open. It was kind of a tough catch, and I almost was out of bounds,” Woodbury said. “I guess that’s why I rushed it: I was almost out of bounds. I probably should have made the extra pass.”

Said Felton: “I would have liked to see us make an extra play to see if we could get a better shot.”

Highly regarded freshman Trey Thompkins finished with a game-high 20 points, and Woodbury scored 15. Peacock led the Yellow Jackets with 18 points, helping prevent Georgia from leaving here again in good spirits before another part of the season.

“Georgia Tech is a totally different team. It’s not like the SEC teams we’ll see a few times,” Woodbury said. “We were in their building with all their fans. It wasn’t the same as the tournament.”

That much, judging by the yellow jacket pounding the bulldog with a hammer after the game on the big screen, was obvious.