Athens, Ga. – The Missouri men’s basketball team used a dominant second-half performance to run past host Georgia on Saturday afternoon, 85-63. The Tigers improve to 21-8 with the win and 9-7 in SEC action, while the Bulldogs drop to 16-13 and 6-10 versus league foes.
After trailing by a point at the intermission, the Tigers outscored Georgia, 45-22, in the second 20 minutes of action. Mizzou used an early 23-4 run to start the frame to move in front by double digits and never let up en route to the 22-point victory. The Tigers shot 63.0 percent after the intermission, including 7-of-12 from 3-point range, while holding Georgia to just 6-of-19 from the field with 10 turnovers.
Graduate student D’Moi Hodge (Tortola, British Virgin Islands) led the Tigers with 18 points, matching a season high with six 3-pointers on 11 attempts. Classmate Nick Honor (Orlando, Fla.) also matched his season high with 17 points – making 5-of-7 from 3-point range – to go with four assists.
Senior Noah Carter (Dubuque, Iowa) and graduate DeAndree Gholston (Gary, Ind.) also scored in double figures with 12 and 10 points, respectively, while senior Kobe Brown (Huntsville, Ala.) led Mizzou with nine boards.
A tight first half saw both teams trade runs en route to the one-point game at the break. The Tigers answered a 7-0 Georgia run with a 9-1 spurt of their own to square the game at 27. The Bulldogs then added a late 8-0 stretch to pull in front by seven only for Hodge and Carter to each nail a 3-pointer in the final 75 seconds to trim the Georgia lead to one, 41-40, at the break.
After a tight opening half, however, it was all Mizzou in the second frame. After Georgia scored the first two points, Mizzou answered with a 15-1 run to pull in front by double digits, 55-44. The Tigers then quickly answered a further 8-0 spurt and 6-0 run as Mizzou allowed Georgia to make just one field goal in the first 11-plus minutes en route to grabbing a 20-point lead, 69-49.
The Bulldogs were never closer than 17 the rest of the game as the 22-point lead is the fifth-largest for Mizzou in a road SEC game in its history.
Mizzou finished the game by shooting 57.9 percent from the field, with a 14-of-28 clip from 3-point range. The Tigers, meanwhile, held the Bulldogs to just 41.3 percent shooting with a 10-of-29 performance from beyond the arc.
The Tigers also outscored Georgia, 32-11, in points off turnovers – their largest margin ever in an SEC game – with a 32-18 difference in points in the paint.
