Mizzou Tigers nab important win with SEC standings implications: Recap vs. Georgia

Earlier in the week, Missouri men’s basketball head coach Dennis Gates spoke of how valuable the experience in February games can be for the postseason. On Saturday, his Tigers got the opportunity to work their way out of a difficult situation, as they earned an SEC road victory at Georgia.

Missouri was losing at halftime — and spent most of the half with one of its best offensive players, D’Moi Hodge, on the bench with four fouls. In the end, it didn’t matter.

The Tigers won 85-63, dominating the Bulldogs after the halftime break. Nick Honor, who entered the contest after hitting the game-winner in overtime against Mississippi State last time out, played especially well, scoring 17 points and going 5-for-7 from three-point range.

“I’ve been saying it all along, he needs to be more selfish,” Gates said of Honor after the game. “Sometimes the word selfish is a negative connotation, but in our program, if you’re too unselfish, that turns the word into selfish. And Nick Honor needs to be able to play off the dribble how he has.”

Speaking of unselfishness, Gates raved about the trait from Missouri’s biggest star in Kobe Brown. Brown, who finished with eight points and nine rebounds, played 19 minutes in the first half.

In the second, his usage was dialed back, with Brown playing just 12 minutes. According to Gates, that was the forward’s own doing.

“Kobe Brown suggested that we play other guys and not himself,” Gates said. “How unselfish is that?”

Missouri was deadly from deep in the second half, hitting 14 of 28 attempts for a 50% clip throughout the game.

Hodge led the Tigers with 18 points. He and Honor were joined in double figures by Noah Carter (12 points) and DeAndre Gholston (10).

A shaky start

To start the game, Missouri was getting its points inside. The Tigers finished the half with 15 points in the paint, with Mohamed Diarra making a large contribution offensively in the opening minutes, slamming home two early dunks.

Unfortunately for MU, the Bulldogs got off to an uncharacteristically hot start from deep, and started to trade threes for Missouri’s twos to gain an early lead. The Tigers struggled to close out on shooters throughout the half, allowing Georgia to go 8-for-17 from beyond the arc.

“I knew (UGA head coach) Mike White would have his team prepared to play,” Gates said. “And they came out blazing. I thought, ultimately, they shot a higher percentage in that first half than they normally do. They made some tough shots.”

Kario Oquendo had an especially good half for the Bulldogs, netting 13 points to lead all scorers and making 3 of 4 attempts from three. Oquendo did all that playing under nine minutes in the half.

Things got better from deep for Missouri. Hodge came on strong, making 4 of 8 threes. Despite the Bulldogs leading by as much as eight at one point, the Tigers fought back and went ahead.

Late in the half, Georgia went on a run and got its lead back. The Bulldogs were aided by an uncharacteristic number of turnovers by the Tigers, who gave the ball away eight times in the first half.

Despite the mistakes, Missouri never let the game get away. Georgia went to the locker room with just a 41-40 lead after Carter sunk a three-pointer in the waning seconds.

“That gave us a little extra boost going into the second half,” Honor said of Carter’s shot. “We just felt that if we just stay strong and stay together, things will figure themselves out in the second half.”

What it means

With the win, Missouri moved to 21-8 on the season and 9-7 in SEC play. With the SEC tournament looming, the victory was huge for a team trying to make its way into the top four in the standings to gain a double bye.

MU entered the game sixth in the conference standings, and remained there after the win while waiting out the rest of the day’s games. The Georgia game appeared to be the Tigers’ toughest test for the rest of the regular season, with only a road matchup against a struggling LSU team and a home game against Ole Miss, which Missouri beat on the road earlier this season, remaining.

The standings remain extremely tight down the stretch. Entering Saturday’s matchup, it was possible for the Tigers to finish anywhere from double-bye territory to 11th in the league, which would force them to play in the first round of the SEC tournament.

Much of Missouri’s ability to move up in the standings depends on Auburn, which faces a brutal late-season stretch of games. Those Tigers, who beat Missouri handily earlier in the season, entered Saturday at 9-6 in SEC play before quickly finding themselves outmatched by Kentucky.

After the UK game, Auburn will face league-leading Alabama on the road before returning home to play No. 11 Tennessee.

Missouri will be back in action on Wednesday in Baton Rouge. That game, which will be aired on the SEC Network, is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

The Star has partnered with the Columbia Daily Tribune for coverage of Missouri Tigers athletics.