While MPJ took spotlight, Jontay Porter helped keep Tigers going in loss to Georgia
Jontay Porter made a name for himself other than "Michael Porter Jr.’s younger brother" this season as he helped lead Missouri to a likely NCAA Tournament bid while a potential return by Porter Jr. remained unclear.
And in Porter Jr.’s first game back in a Missouri uniform — a 62-60 loss to Georgia on Thursday in the SEC Tournament — the younger of the two brothers again helped keep Missouri afloat.
Jontay Porter scored 20 points and pulled down eight rebounds on 5-for-8 shooting, which included four threes in a game in which his brother routinely got ovations from everything to subbing in to drawing a foul.
“He had a pretty good game offensively,” Michael Porter Jr. said of his brother. “The encouraging part for us is just that besides — I mean, he's the only one who had a really good offensive game. We played, to me, about as bad as we played offensively — besides him — as we have all year.”
Jontay Porter fed his older brother for a wide-open layup with 16:25 left in the first half, Porter Jr.'s first basket in almost four months, sending the Scottrade Center into a celebration.
“It was kind of surreal,” Jontay Porter said. “I almost forgot he was playing with us. Once I saw him, I was like, ‘Oh, give it to him.’ ”
When the Porters first committed to Missouri last spring, the idea of both 6-foot-10 freshmen on the floor together was a thought that could give opposing defenses fits.
“The synergy between the two when they play together is phenomenal,” said Lorenzo Romar, an assistant coach at Arizona who recruited the brothers to Washington and is a close family friend.
But as the game went on it was Jontay’s shots that did more for Missouri than Michael’s.
Jontay Porter’s three with 14:47 left in the second half cut Georgia’s lead to 39-36. Graduate transfer Kassius Robertson tied the score with a three the following possession.
After Georgia responded with an 8-0 run, Jontay Porter hit another three that cut the deficit to five and prevented the Bulldogs from running away with the game.
The younger Porter’s performance was his third straight with at least 19 points and seven rebounds as he continues to become more consistent late in the season, and talk of Missouri losing both brothers becomes more possible.
When asked about potentially leaving for the NBA at the end of the season, Jontay Porter said he’s “not looking at the future.”
Missouri coach Cuonzo Martin said that Jontay is taking advantage of mismatches more, which wasn’t the case earlier in the season.
“That has to be an advantage for us,” Martin said. “That's an insult when smaller guys are guarding in the post. Now you see him in the post, he takes bigger guys down and uses his body well and is putting them in the rim. He wasn't doing that before.”
Michael Porter Jr.’s most significant bucket was a three he hit from the top of the key with a minute left that cut the Georgia lead to 61-60. It was one of only two threes from Porter Jr., who seemed winded at times after playing 23 minutes. Porter Jr. nearly hit a three with 17 seconds left that would have given Missouri the lead, but it bounced off the rim.
Porter Jr. appeared fatigued on the sidelines, which seemed to be the reason he missed a few shots Thursday. Jontay attributed his brother’s performance more to nerves than conditioning.
Despite one Porter carrying the offense Thursday rather than two, Michael Porter Jr. is still optimistic Missouri can turn into a threat in next week’s NCAA Tournament.
“Besides Jontay, we played horrible offensively and lost by two points,” he said. “So I think we have a team that can do something special still. We just have to get it clicking — we were out of sync a lot today. We’ve got a lot to build on.”
This story was originally published March 9, 2018 at 4:52 PM with the headline "While MPJ took spotlight, Jontay Porter helped keep Tigers going in loss to Georgia."