It was obvious at the end of the first half that Georgia was going to need a wakeup call to get back into Saturday’s home game against Missouri.
Who knew it would take a baseline fracas for that to occur, but that’s just what happened as the Bulldogs fed off the resulting energy and turned it into a 71-66 win.
Ugly would have been putting it mildly.
Georgia struggled mightily the first 20 minutes, converting just 7-of-21 shots and turning the ball over an incredible 12 times before a play at the buzzer led to both teams pushing on the court, leading to technical fouls on both Georgia Director of Player Operations Kent Davison and Missouri assistant coach Scott Shields.
"There was a lot of energy on the building, on our team, our coaching staff, everywhere," junior Yante Maten said. "It wasn't hard to find energy to play in the game, but everybody was riled up at that point in the second half."
The result was a more energized Bulldog team, which went on to outscore the Tigers 50-40 in the second half to finish with the five-point win.
Georgia improved to 10-5 overall, 2-1 in the SEC while Missouri – which dropped its 22nd-straight road game under head coach Kim Anderson – dropped to 5-9 and 0-2.
“I’m not real pleased with how we played today,” Georgia head coach Mark Fox said. “I thought we turned the ball over unbelievably too much and tried to make some plays … I don’t know what we were doing. We were just out of rhythm so I was very disappointed in our mental attachment to how we wanted to play offense.”
Fortunately for Georgia, the second half was another story, thanks to four straight points from J.J. Frazier.
“Obviously, the start of the second half, J.J. got his hands on a couple of balls and that was crucial for us to get him going,” Fox said. “Then late in the game when we had to make the plays to finish it, we did.”
Georgia led by as many as 11 points in the second half.
“We knew they would make a run in the second half and of course they did,” Anderson said. “I’m sure it was fueled by what happened at the end of the first half.”
Maten led the Bulldogs with 17 points and nine rebounds, followed by Frazier with 17 points, Pape Diatta with 12 and Juwan Parker with 11. Sophomore Derek Ogbeide led the Bulldogs with 11 rebounds, 10 on the defensive side.
Terrence Phillips led Missouri with 20 points.
Diatta’s 12 points marked the first double-digit game for the junior college transfer in his Bulldog career.
“Pape is getting better each week and I thought he was very effective today,” Fox said. “He continues to make progress. The transition is hard. He’ll struggle some days with the amount of information that you have to read when you play, but he is getting there and starting to get comfortable. Today he was able to shoot the ball in and I thought he was able to relax and play with some confidence. Obviously, he was a big contributor.”
NOTES: Georgia returns to action on Tuesday when the Bulldogs travel to Oxford, Miss. to take on Ole Miss. … Maten’s 17 points was his 14th double-digit performance of the season and 49th of his career. Frazier’s 16 points was the 58th double-digit showing of his career. Frazier also equaled his career high with five steals.… Parker’s 11 points was his fourth-straight double-digit output.
