Takeaways from Missouri Tigers’ loss to Georgia Bulldogs in SEC opener at Mizzou Arena

The Missouri Tigers led by a point with just over 5 minutes to play in their SEC men’s basketball opener on Saturday at Mizzou Arena.

But then the visiting Georgia Bulldogs scored nine straight points and held off MU down the stretch to beat the Tigers 75-68.

Mizzou (8-6, 0-1 SEC) led very early in the game, but the Tigers would go on to play from behind for most of the afternoon.

Senior guard Sean East II, who scored his 1,000th career point Saturday, led Missouri with 18 points and eight rebounds. Kansas City, Kansas native Tamar Bates added 15 points, Blue Valley grad Aidan Shaw scored a career-high 14 and Noah Carter chipped in 13.

Russell Tchewa led UGA (11-3, 1-0) with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Missouri coach Dennis Gates lamented his team’s inability to get to the free-throw line.

“When it comes down to shooting free throws at home,” he said, “we shot seven free throws to our opponent’s 21. It’s impossible to leave points in the paint like we did and not come away with more free-throw shooting.”

MU next plays No. 6 Kentucky at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.

Here are three takeaways from Saturday’s contest:

Questionable shot selection

Bates said Friday that he thought Missouri needed to pick and choose better 3-point opportunities.

The Tigers did not do that.

MU missed multiple 3-pointers during a six-plus-minute drought without a field goal in the middle of the first half. The Tigers were 0-of-11 from the field during the brutal stretch and would finish the day 6-of-19 from 3-point range.

The Bulldogs, meanwhile, went on an 16-0 run.

Bates finally ended the hosts’ drought with a 3 from the wing. That made it 35-21. But Justin Hill countered with a nearly identical shot on the other end.

That wasn’t much of a surprise, because …

Perimeter defense struggles again

Pair poor shooting with leaky defense, and you get the first 15 minutes of Saturday’s game.

Missouri let Georgia make 8 of its first 11 attempts from beyond the arc in the first half. That helped the visitors build a 17-point lead.

And ‘let’ was indeed the operative word — Missouri’s perimeter defense was pretty lacking. The Tigers sagged off Noah Thomasson, who went 3-of-4, and struggled to guard Jabri Abdur-Rahim and Justin Hill, who each went 2-of-2 from 3-point range.

It looked like that would be the ballgame.

Late first-half burst

Missouri did put together a nice run just before halftime.

Sound familiar? It should — Gates’ Tigers are making this a regular occurrence.

Down 17 with 5 minutes, 18 seconds to go in the first half, they hit a new gear. Shaw got the rally started and Bates drew a tough and-one. East made it a 7-0 run shortly after, and Carter hit a 3.

Shaw rose highest for the loose ball on a missed layup. He didn’t bring it in, however: he kept going up and then threw down a put-back dunk.

“It was a good game for me because I was going off the game plan,” Shaw said. “Doing what I do most and what I’m good at. ... Going forward, I just plan on sticking to what we’re doing and staying solid.”

Shaw’s slam helped put the finishing touches on a 17-2 run by the Tigers that trimmed Georgia’s lead to two points at halftime, 40-38.

The Star has partnered with the Columbia Daily Tribune for coverage of Missouri Tigers athletics.

This story was originally published January 6, 2024 at 2:05 PM.