The Georgia men’s basketball team completed a season sweep of Missouri with a 71-56 win at Stegeman Coliseum on Tuesday night. The Bulldogs have won ten conference games for the first time since the 2003 season.
Georgia (16-11, 10-5) had three different players score in doubles figures. Charles Mann led the way with 19 points, while Marcus Thornton and Kenny Gaines scored 15 and 10 points, respectively.
“That was a really, a hard fought game,” said head coach Mark Fox. “Missouri has a really good basketball team. They have such a good team that our team had a great respect for them so we were very ready to play. We defended very, very well. We didn’t rebound like we had hoped, but our defense was good. And I thought offensively, we shot the ball pretty well and played a pretty complete game.”
The Bulldogs ended the first half on a 10-2 run, capped by back-to-back three-pointers by Nemanja Djurisic, to take a 31-22 lead into the locker room and carried the momentum into the second half.
Juwan Parker and Thornton combined to put the Bulldogs on a 9-3 run to give Georgia a 14-point lead just five minutes into the second half. After the Tigers cut the lead to ten, Georgia went on a deafening 14-4 run to take a 20-point lead with just four minutes remaining.
With the outcome already decided, Missouri closed the game scoring eight straight points to cut the margin to 15 points.
Georgia held Missouri to just 32 percent shooting from the field, including 3-of-18 from three-point range.
The Bulldogs next travel to Fayetteville to play Arkansas on Saturday at 4 p.m. The game will be televised on SEC-TV.
Worth Noting…
• Georgia’s starting line-up was Marcus Thornton (53rd career start), Brandon Morris (38th career start), Charles Mann (33rd career start), Kenny Gaines (25th career start) and Donte Williams (85th career start).
• Georgia’s ten conference wins are its best since the 2003 season. It now also guarantees a plus-.500 SEC season—a feat now accomplished only seven times since 1990.
• Tonight’s win is Georgia’s sixth this season over a RPI Top 100 opponent.
• It was also the Bulldogs’ fourth conference win of more than 15 points.
• For the first time this season, Georgia won while being outrebounded (previously 0-6 when losing the battle on the boards).
• Georgia shot over 50 percent from the field for the 11th time this season.
Career highs…
• Marcus Thornton tied a career-high with 15 points (15 vs. LSU on 2/6/14)
• Charles Mann tied a career-high with eight rebounds (8 vs. Ole Miss on 2/15/14)
• Juwan Parker tied a career-high with four assists (4 vs. Ole Miss on 2/15/14)
The Series: With tonight’s win, Georgia sweeps the season series with the Tigers. Georgia is 2-4 all-time vs. Missouri.
Next Up: Georgia will travel to Arkansas (18-9, 7-7) for a 4 p.m. Saturday tip-off. The game is will be televised on SEC-TV. Georgia is 14-17 all-time against the Razorbacks, but beat them earlier this season at home in overtime, 66-61. The Bulldogs will be going for their third conference series sweep.
Box Score/Schedule
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