From 20-point comeback to Nikko’s block, how Mizzou rallied for win vs. Georgia
The Missouri Tigers held on by a thread, up two points with 18 seconds left. Georgia had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead.
The Bulldogs predictably looked to pass to star guard Anthony Edwards. But in trying to deny Edwards on an entry pass, Mizzou’s Javon Pickett collided with Xavier Pinson, leaving both collapsed on the floor.
It left Edwards with a perfect opening. He rushed past Reed Nikko and Dru Smith — appearing to have the game-tying layup.
Then Nikko recovered out of nowhere, denying Edwards’ shot and sending the Mizzou Arena crowd into a frenzy. Mizzou escaped with a thrilling 72-69 win that snapped a four-game losing streak on Tuesday. Nikko’s block capped off Mizzou’s comeback attempt after they were down 20 points in the second half.
“I didn’t really realize until after the game it was Edwards and all that,” Nikko said, who added the block was up there in his career highlight reel. Edwards, a future NBA Draft pick, scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and missed a potential game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.
It was a long road for the Tigers to even get to Nikko’s block to save the game.
After an Edwards three-pointer with 13:33 left, Mizzou was down 59-39 as pockets of the crowd left early. With the Tigers showing little energy, it looked like another loss in part of a lost season.
But the Tigers (10-10, 2-5 SEC) slowly clawed back, chipping away at the lead while Georgia’s shots stopped falling. Mizzou strung together a 10-0 run while holding the Bulldogs (11-9, 1-6 SEC) scoreless for a stretch of 5 minutes, 22 seconds.
Once the Tigers shrunk the deficit to 61-51, Mizzou forward Mitchell Smith said that was when he felt like the Tigers could complete the comeback. Once they got over the top, he said it felt like “scoring your first bucket.”
“I could just see it on everybody’s face on the court, even the guys on the bench,” Smith said. “We just had that shine in our eyes. We were hungry for that win. Guys wanted to be out there. Guys wanted that win.”
Nikko and Smith were huge for the Tigers, scoring a combined 25 points. The two starting forwards — pushed into action because of Jeremiah Tilmon’s injury — showed scoring prowess Mizzou desperately needed.
But the comeback attempt started with Pickett, who finished with 11 points. Martin and his staff stressed to the Tigers how they needed to attack the basket more. The three-pointers were falling — the Tigers shot 43.5% from deep — but they needed to force the Bulldogs to defend the drives.
Pickett rose up to the challenge at the start, scoring on back-to-back layups. Then the Tigers turned to their closer: Pinson. The 6-foot-2 guard attacked the basket often aggressively as he found the opening in Georgia’s defense.
While Dru Smith was slowed by an ankle injury he tweaked at West Virginia, the Tigers turned to Pinson. And for the first time in weeks, Pinson delivered, scoring all 16 of his points in the second half.
“I felt my rhythm coming back into flow,” Pinson said. “That’s just basically it. I feel that my teammates believe in me, my coaches believe in me. That’s mainly all I need.”
In multiple games this season, the Tigers were down big and tried to string together a comeback attempt, only for it to fall short. That happened against West Virginia, Alabama, Oklahoma and other teams as the losses piled up.
But the Tigers finally got over the hump on Tuesday. Nikko said they’ll look to use that experience and momentum going forward, with a pair of road games coming up. Mizzou travels to play South Carolina at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
“Guys really played with heart,” Mitchell Smith said. “In other games we would come back, we kind of settled. We got comfortable we were coming back. Tonight, we knew we were coming back, but we had to push through to get the win. It wasn’t enough to come back.”