Early in the first half, Ashton Hagans made his way past the Georgia bench after a few quick buckets declaring, “This is my sh**, Georgia my sh**.”

The confident Cartersville, Georgia native and once a University of Georgia commit had another superb game against his hometown team– Hagans finished with a team-high 23 points on 8-of-17 shooting while dishing nine assists and grabbing four steals. He also added a 7-of-8 mark from the free throw line. 

This is the fourth time in his career that Hagans has reached the 20-point mark, three of those times coming against the Georgia Bulldogs. A few weeks ago, he scored 13 points, dished five assists and had four steals in Athens. 

“Knowing my people from back at the crib if they couldn’t make it, knowing I got people in the stands, and going against my homeboys… I just like to have fun when I go against them.”

Ashton also said that the firing of Mark Fox at Georgia while he was committed to go to Athens was a “big part” of why he feels the need to play so hard against the Bulldogs.

The sophomore said he had 12-14 family members and friends in attendance, but made sure to point out that it wasn’t as many as his last game against the Bulldogs. He openly admitted how he feels that he might be trying to do too much to show out for his hometown buddies, however, it was working tonight. Hagans started off shooting 6-of-10 before missing five out of his last seven shots.

With only 13 regular season games remaining Ashton was asked about the very real possibility of breaking Kentucky’s all time assists per game record in a season and what it would mean to him.

“It would mean the world to me,” Hagans said. “Coming to your dream school achieving something, if I do get that it would just be a dream come true.”

With his nine assists tonight, he extended his five-or-more-assists streak to 15 straight games. That’s the best streak since 2015-2016, when Tyler Ulis did it in 24 straight games.