NASHVILLE, Tenn. – There’s a lot of adjectives one can use when summing up Georgia’s first year under head coach Tom Crean.
Frustrating, certainly comes to mind. Others, well, take your pick.
You can also call it over, as the Bulldogs faded down the wire of Wednesday’s first-round SEC Tournament game at Bridgestone Arena against Missouri, falling 71-61, bringing to an end what Crean described as a difficult ending to what most would characterize as a disappointing first year.
"You said it right. It's hard. When the season ends, I'm not very reflective and I'm not very futuristic. I'll get there, right?," Crean said. "I've enjoyed working with these guys at a high level. We haven't known each other a year yet. It will be a year this weekend. I've enjoyed working with them immensely. I did not want the season to end. I did not want it to end. I've loved working with them. Unfortunately I'm not really mentally prepared to talk about the future. I know we have one. I know there is one. I know I'll be smack dab in the middle of it by sometime tomorrow. Right now it's hitting me that I'm going to miss those guys."
The Bulldogs – who suffered their earliest exit from the tournament since 2009 – finish the year 11-21.
Jordan Harris led the Bulldogs with a career-high 26 points (8 of 11) followed by Derek Ogbeide with 12 and Nicolas Claxton with 11 before fouling out with 2:58 to play. Claxton also chipped with a career-high six blocks.
Jordan Geist led the Tigers (15-16) with 26 points. Missouri will play Auburn in Thursday's second round.
"I feel like we competed hard. Like coach said, it came down to free throws, opportunities we didn't execute on. I think that really kind of bit us towards the end of the game," Harris aid. "I feel like everybody gave it they all. We played hard. None of us wanted to stop playing basketball today. Coach definitely didn't want to stop coaching us today. At this point, man, we got to move on and just look forward to the future."
Georgia kept it close before ultimately running out of gas.
After trailing by two at the half, Missouri received some offense from an unlikely source when Mitchell Smith hit a pair of short-range jumpers for a 43-29 lead at the first timeout of the second half.
Back came the Bulldogs.
A 3-pointer by Harris and a free throw by Ogbeide tied the game at 43, until six straight points pushed the Tigers’ lead to six with just over nine minutes to play before a 3-pointer by Geist put the Tigers up 52-45. Missouri never looked back.
The Bulldogs made it harder on themselves than they needed to, converting just 21 of 36 free throws (58.3 percent).
"We attacked the rim, so we were doing something right," Crean said. "But we only made 21. I felt the threes would go, but other than Jordan, they really didn't. They were good threes, but at the end of the day attacking the rim was the most important attribute for us tonight. But you're not going to beat many people when you just shoot 58 percent from the line."
Claxton agreed.
"My efforts in the paint, they're usually pretty solid. We didn't do enough to get the job done, to get the win. That's what we wanted at the end of the day," Claxton said. "Free throws, like Coach Crean just said, they were huge. That's something I really need to work on in the off-season."
Although Georgia’s first-half shooting wasn’t particularly of note (10 of 28 for 37.9 percent), the fact the Bulldogs were ahead 34-32 was a feat all by itself after scoring just 14 points in the first half during their 25-point loss on Senior Night, finishing with just 39 points on the night.
That wasn’t the only note of significance.
To find the first time Georgia led at the half, you have to go all the way back to the team’s 82-63 win over Vanderbilt in the second conference game of the year. A Jan. 26 non-conference game against Texas, saw both teams tied at 40 as the first half came to an end.
Give Harris his share of credit for giving the Bulldogs the lead.
The junior scored six of his team’s first eight points, later following up a 3-pointer by Amanze Ngumezi with one of his own to put Georgia up 33-26 2:35 left in the first half, only to have the Tigers ultimately close within one with 1:10 on the clock before the Bulldogs went into the locker room up by two.
