COLUMBIA, MO. • With the Southeastern Conference seemingly stockpiled with the most quality men’s basketball teams since Missouri joined the league five years ago, the Tigers came into Wednesday’s home game in danger of slipping below .500 in league play. Road wins in a loaded SEC will become precious currency come time for postseason seedings, making home wins all the more vital as teams build their credentials toward March. That’s what made Saturday’s home loss to Florida so crushing.
That’s what made Wednesday’s home win over Georgia so rewarding.
Featuring a new starting lineup against the SEC’s most accomplished post player, the Tigers erased a dreadful shooting display in the first half and erupted in the second half for a 68-56 victory at Mizzou Arena.
Making his first career start, Missouri freshman forward Jontay Porter drew the game’s toughest assignment, matched against All-SEC big man Yante Maten, the league’s preseason co-player of the year, the league’s top rebounder and top scoring forward. But Porter, just two months past his 18th birthday, rewarded Cuonzo Martin’s trust with one of his most complete games and outplayed the Bulldogs’ veteran, finishing with 15 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and two steals in a career-high 32 minutes.
Porter only started, Martin later explained, to give junior Kevin Puryear a chance to relax and regroup after several consecutive rough games, though the freshman more than earned his keep in the lineup.
“I definitely think he’s one of the best freshmen in the country,” Puryear said, “and he’s proving himself of that. I’m really proud of him.”
That’s what most people expected of Porter’s older brother, fellow freshman Michael Porter Jr., who shared the preseason player of the year honors with Maten but hasn’t played since the opening minutes of Mizzou’s first game and continues to recover from back surgery.
Michael had a front-row seat to little brother’s most complete game Wednesday. It helped that the game’s officials silenced their whistles most of the night and allowed Porter and fellow freshman forward Jeremiah Tilmon to freely roam the lane. The towering rookies led Mizzou’s charge out of the locker room and out of a three-point halftime deficit with their most aggressive play in weeks, perhaps all season.
“You know, that’s the most (the officials have) let their post guys play all year and we didn’t respond to it,” Georgia coach Mark Fox said. “It’s the most physical they let them play Their guys had their way with us.”
Mizzou’s Kassius Robertson matched Porter’s 15 points, while Jordan Geist and Tilmon both gave the Tigers 10 points.
Every bit as important as his scoring, Porter helped limit Maten to just nine points, his low for the season. Maten came into the game averaging 20 points and had failed to reach double digits just seven times in his previous 76 games. With a plan to force the 6-9 senior to go to his left, the Tigers held Maten to just two field goals on eight attempts and a season-low two rebounds.
“Tonight,” Fox said, “he didn’t respond to the challenge. I told him tonight, ‘You didn’t play well and you’ve got to accept responsibility for it. You have to get their team credit. They defended you well.’ It looked like he was a little worn down, but that’s no excuse.”
Martin was careful not to build up the matchup with too much drama before the game, knowing his two freshman forwards would have to trade blows Maten from the opening tip.
“They embraced the challenge,” Martin said. “They feel like they’re just as good as the other guy — not in an arrogant way. But they just play the game.”
With the win, Mizzou (12-4, 2-1 SEC) ended a six-game losing streak to the Bulldogs (11-4, 2-2) and strut into Saturday’s showdown at Arkansas (11-5, 1-3) with some restored confidence.
A team so reliant on 3-pointers is going to have off nights when shots don’t fall, and that’s how the first half began for the Tigers, who went nearly 11 minutes until hitting their first jumper, a Robertson 3-pointer from the corner with 9:03 left in the half. Nothing Martin tried out of his rotations seemed to work as the Tigers shot just one of nine from 3-point range and eight of 30 overall.
During the half, the Tigers endured field goal droughts of 3:44 and 3:18 but erased a seven-point deficit in the final possessions with a Porter layup and Geist’s steal and score under the basket. Mizzou was fortunate to head into the locker room trailing just 23-20 — Barry Odom’s football team scored 21 in the first half at Georgia in October — but quickly found answers inside to start the second half.
Tilmon and Porter scored MU’s first seven points to light the spark the Tigers needed, igniting a 13-2 run out of the locker room. Tilmon got loose in the lane for two dunks in the half’s opening three minutes, while Geist twice attacked the rim for layups.
Porter’s layup 2:14 into the half gave the Tigers their first lead since Porter’s game-opening basket. They didn’t trail again.
The Bulldogs got within two with a 10-2 run, but Robertson personally nixed the surge with a 3-pointer, a transition dunk off a steal in the backcourt and another 3.
After a miserable first half, including an air-balled 3-pointer and a couple of more shots that missed most of everything, Puryear erupted late in the second half with three consecutive baskets, scoring on a spinning post move, a 3-pointer from the top of the key and a baseline drive past a couple of defenders. In the junior’s first game off the bench since the opener against Iowa State, when Michael Porter Jr. opened at power forward, Puryear recovered from his slow start to finish with nine points, all in the second half.
PURYEAR ADDS BENCH SUPPORT
Coming into Wednesday’s tip-off, Puryear had gone six consecutive games without scoring in double figures, the longest such streak of his career and a streak that reached seven with Wednesday’s output. But the junior forward left the game relieved by his second-half surge. Even though he missed the rim by several feet on one his first-half 3s, Puryear didn’t hesitate to unleash his wide-open attempt in the second half, his first made 3 in five attempts in conference games.
“I put the work in,” he said “I shoot every day before and after practice. I know one of them is bound to fall. I missed one by a lot in the first half but I think I bounced back pretty well.”
Martin benched his most experienced forward to “give him peace of mind” after his string of poor outings, hoping he’d spark a more productive night off the bench. He got his wish late in the first half.
“You saw tonight what he was before those (recent) games,” Martin said. “Being aggressive, being strong with the ball, being physical and tough. He has a big body and he has to utilize that.”
“I don’t want him comfortable coming off the bench,” Martin added. “That’s not an easy thing to do. I want him to continue to fight and continue to battle.”
BETTER BALL CONTROL
The Tigers turned the ball over just six times, a season-low figure and their first time in the single digits since an eight-turnover game against Green Bay on Dec. 9. Geist, playing on his 21st birthday, got the bulk of the minutes at the point and finished with a clean box score: 10 points, four assists, zero turnovers in a season-high 34 minutes.
“We’re progressing,” Martin said. “I think we had 13 (at South Carolina), 11 (against Florida) and now down to six. It’s really taking care of the ball, reading the defense and making the right decisions.”
WALK-ON OUT WITH INJURY
Missouri is down to 10 healthy players after losing junior walk-on forward Adam Wolf will miss the rest of the season after tearing a knee ligament in his left knee during a workout Sunday. Wolf had appeared in four games this season with three 3-pointers, all in the final moments of lopsided home wins, when he’d summon his own cheer from the student section: “Feed the Wolf!”