Mizzou hopes to turn around flagging fortunes at Georgia

Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum has been a house of horrors for Missouri.

The Tigers — who have lost 26 straight road games, including 23 in a row in Southeastern Conference play — have lost by an average margin of 19 points during three trips to Athens, Ga., since joining the conference five seasons ago.

“We’ve always had trouble there,” third-year coach Kim Anderson said after an 88-77 loss Wednesday in the Tigers’ conference-opener against LSU.

Mizzou’s effort is made more challenging by the fact Saturday’s game, which tips off at noon on the SEC Network, is the first true road game of the season.

The Tigers played three neutral site games during the Tire Pros Invitational in Orlando, Fla., in mid-November and met Illinois on a neutral court last month for the annual Braggin’ Rights battle.

“I probably won’t talk about it much,” Anderson said of not yet having played a road game. “I don’t want to give them something else to worry about. (Let’s) just go down there and play.”

With the dawn of conference play, Mizzou (5-8, 0-1 SEC) showed more spark against LSU than it had in recent weeks against other foes.

The Tigers led LSU by five at halftime before of couple turnovers and back-to-back three-pointers by LSU sophomore guard Antonio Blakeney turned things around early in the second half.

Mizzou wilted and got blown away in the second half of the program’s sixth consecutive SEC defeat.

“We’re a young team, but it just comes down to growing up,” Missouri sophomore forward Kevin Puryear, a Blue Springs South graduate, said. “Clearly, when people watch our games, we have growing up to do in that aspect. We can’t let two plays determine the rest of the game. I think that will get better with experience and being out there playing more.”

The Tigers — whose nonconference slate since Nov. 28 included eye-sore losses against North Carolina Central, Eastern Illinois and Lipscomb, in addition to a 19-point home loss against Arizona — desperately need something positive to build upon.

Anderson has tried mixing and matching the lineup since Christmas in search of a winning mix.

Junior forward Jordan Barnett and sophomore point guard Jordan Geist joined the starting lineup for the Lipscomb game, while sophomore guard K.J. Walton replaced sophomore point guard Terrence Phillips in the starting lineup against LSU.

“It wasn’t a punishment,” Anderson said of Phillips. “Nothing like that. I thought that maybe he would give us a boost when he came off the bench. I thought he would have a chance to sit there and kind of study what’s going on then come in and play.”

Phillips responded with 12 points, seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals with only one turnover and still logged 30 minutes, while Walton played 28 minutes.

Efforts to shake up the lineup now are complicated by freshman forward Willie Jackson’s transfer to Toledo and freshman forward Mitchell Smith’s season-ending knee injury.

Another freshman forward, Reed Nikko, has returned to the lineup after a four-game absence with a high-left-ankle sprain, but he remains a bit limited by the injury. Senior Russell Woods, meanwhile, is dealing with back spasms.

This story was originally published January 6, 2017 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Mizzou hopes to turn around flagging fortunes at Georgia."