The game nearly slipped away from Mizzou a handful of times in the first half.
The Tigers, facing Georgia on the road on Saturday, came out of the gates missing all of their first six 3-pointers. The team was uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 9-8. MU was whistled for nine fouls while the Bulldogs were only called for four. The Tigers weren’t any good when they did get to the free throw line anyway, making 1-5. Georgia went up by eight, saw the lead shrink down to zero, then pushed back ahead by seven.
The first half had all the ingredients that typically result in a loss for Missouri. Yet, the team pushed through it, dominating the Bulldogs in the second half to come out of Stegeman Coliseum with an 85-63 victory.
“It was an emotional game simply because this was Senior Day for the Georgia Bulldogs. I knew (UGA head coach) Mike White would have his team prepared to play and they came out, you know, blazing,” Tigers head coach Dennis Gates said. “They made some tough shots, but our guys did the same. They didn't hesitate to get back to what we naturally have done.”
Senior guards D’Moi Hodge and Nick Honor helped get the Tigers out of their shooting funk. Honor broke the lid on the basket with a triple midway through the first half. Hodge closed out the period by draining four more. His fourth make ended an 8-0 run by Georgia (16-13, 6-10 SEC), trimming Mizzou’s deficit to 41-37 with 1:16 left on the clock. Senior forward Noah Carter buried another trey just before the buzzer to make it a one-point game and give the visitors some momentum heading into the second half. Honor said the shot helped the team build its confidence back up.
The Bulldogs had kept pace with Missouri by lighting up from long-range. The Tigers ran a 2-3 zone on defense for most of the first half and had some success with it, forcing nine turnovers and holding Georgia to just 10 attempts inside the arc. But the Bulldogs, who’ve shot 32.5% from deep for the season, exposed the zone by going 8-17 from outside.
Gates figured Georgia wouldn’t continue to hit 48.1% of its 3s, but switched his team to man-to-man defense to limit the number of open looks along the perimeter. The change worked — the hosts went just 2-12 on 3s in the second half. Missouri continued to have active hands, forcing another 10 turnovers on defense, leading to 19 points in transition.
“(The Bulldogs) have a negative assist-to-turnover ratio on the season,” Gates said. “We knew that if we stayed solid that the ball was going to come back to us. And we gambled in some occasions, but I thought our guys, position-wise, were in the right spots and we shifted when the offense forced us to. And ultimately that's what led to those points off turnovers, we were able to advance the ball, we were able to get spacing, which are all crucial.”
Gates been on Honor’s case all season long about being more selfish with the ball in his hands. The Clemson transfer had scored double-digit points just four times in SEC play entering Saturday’s game. Honor doesn’t feel it’s always in his nature to force a shot.
“I just take what they give me out there,” Honor said. “I try to make sure my guys get shots. And then I feel like, when I need to score, I score.”
The team captain felt comfortable enough against Georgia to keep shooting in the second half, making another three triples and leading the Tigers with 11 points.
“We know once he gets a little pep in his step — because he's such a great kid, he's a future head coach at the Division I level, he sees the game a certain way and he wants his teammates to be happy, right?” Gates said. “And that forces him to not be as aggressive as he could because we have guys on the floor that can score at every position. So he does a great job of managing the personalities, but also, when he sees the game a certain way, we just need him to be able to do what he demonstrated tonight. And that opens it up for a lot of people.”
The combination of Missouri’s defense stepping up and Nick Honor leading the way on offense was too much for the Bulldogs to handle. The Tigers opened the second half on a 29-8 run to pull ahead by 20 and never looked back.
Hodge led the team 18 points, followed by Honor with 17, Carter with 12 and senior guard DeAndre Gholston with 10. The team finished the game 14-28 on its 3s. The win ensures that Mizzou will finish at or above .500 in conference play.
Gates said he thought it was a team win, “from top to bottom.”
Brown makes a suggestion
Senior forward Kobe Brown was by no means having a bad game. While the Tigers went through their early cold stretch from beyond the arc, Brown kept the team afloat by scoring at the rim and hammering the glass. Despite consistently seeing double teams every time he touched the ball, Brown was up to eight points and eight rebounds by halftime.
But Brown thought the team might play better with him on the sideline. He suggested to Gates that he play less in the second half. Gates listened — after playing 19 minutes in the first, Brown saw the floor for just 12 minutes in the second.
“How unselfish is that?” Gates said. “Sometimes you set up an environment where you're telling players what to do, but our environment is one that's conducive and allows communication back and forth. And his suggestion was taken wisely.”
Gates also chose to bring Gholston off the bench in the second half, putting senior guard Tre Gomillion in with the starters. The head coach thought Gholston had been more of a facilitator while Gomillion was recovering from a groin injury. But since Gomillion was back and healthy, Gates wanted Gholston to transition back to being a scorer and gave him a reset in the second half.
Both of the changes paid off. Carter and freshman forward Aidan Shaw saw a bump in minutes while Brown sat. Carter provided seven points in the second half while Shaw added two and brought intense defensive pressure — Gates said on Twitter after the contest he thought the game changed when Shaw was given an opportunity.
Gholston also found his footing, shooting 3-5 from the field for six points, finishing the game with 10. Brown and Gholston had a combined plus/minus of minus-13 in the first half. They were plus-27 in the second half.
Brown didn’t take a single shot in the second period, but somehow made his team better by doing so. Gates came away impressed.
“He wanted those minutes to be distributed amongst other guys and guys were able to step up, which I'm proud of,” Gates said. “We've said all along, we live in our eight core values … And our guys were able to show glimpses of it. But that unselfish spirit is something that stood out to me.”
Up next
Missouri (21-8, 9-7 SEC) will play in its final road game of the regular season on Wednesday, matching up with LSU (13-15, 2-13) at 8 p.m. CT. Mizzou defeated the Tigers, 87-77, in their first meeting on Feb. 1 in Columbia, Mo.
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