Missouri men’s basketball has faced plenty of ups and downs over its first six games of conference play.
The Tigers provided a crucial boost to their tournament hopes by recording wins over quality opponents in Florida, Kentucky and Auburn. But MU also suffered letdown road losses against struggling Ole Miss and LSU teams, tempering hopes after a 2-0 start in the SEC.
Mizzou hit a new low Tuesday in its roller coaster ride during the month of January, dropping its second straight game in a 74-72 loss
to Georgia.
The game’s ending mirrored the team’s topsy-turvy start to its conference schedule.
MU trailed 71-67 with just under two minutes remaining after a Marcus Millender three-pointer for the Bulldogs, but responded with a heavily contested fadeaway shot by Jayden Stone as time was about to expire on the shot clock.
The Tigers recorded a defensive stop on the next possession, allowing Jacob Crews to hit a triple of his own that put them ahead 72-71 with 18 seconds remaining.
Millender came up in the clutch again for UGA, though. He drove into the paint and converted a three-point play with 5.5 seconds left, absorbing contact from Sean Phillips Jr. and finishing for the bucket to give Georgia back the lead.
Crews’ last-ditch attempt was off the mark, preserving the Bulldogs’ road victory.
The shot was one of Mizzou’s 25 attempts from beyond the arc. MU went 7-of-25 from the perimeter, a 28 percent mark, but outshot UGA from the field overall.
Both teams got off to a sloppy start, with the Tigers committing nine turnovers and Georgia eight turnovers, respectively, in the first half. The two squads cut down on their mistakes in the final 20 minutes, but a key trend from the opening half remained.
The Bulldogs recorded 19 points off of Mizzou’s 12 turnovers, while MU scored 10 points off turnovers — the same as the total number of giveaways by UGA.
The first half saw a far more extended version of the back-and-forth at the end of the game. The Tigers and Georgia traded four straight runs of 7-0 or more, including a 13-0 streak for the Bulldogs and a 10-0 run for Mizzou that tied the score at 20.
Those four runs, all of them back-to-back, spanned roughly 10 minutes of the opening half.
Mark Mitchell led the way for MU, recording 18 points on a 7-of-15 mark from the field and five rebounds. Stone and Crews also recorded double-digits in scoring with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The loss drops Mizzou to 13-6 on the season and 3-3 in conference play.
The Tigers continue their homestand with a matchup Saturday in Columbia against Oklahoma. That game will tip off at 1 p.m. and be broadcast on ESPN2.
