St. Louis Stunner: Georgia squeaks past Mizzou, advances to SEC quarterfinals

Michael Porter, Jr. made it back into the Missouri lineup just in time to join the Tigers on the bus back to campus. The freshman phenom and likely NBA lottery pick shot a tepid 5 of 12 from the field and Yante Maten poured in 21 as the ‘Dawgs upset Mizzou 62-60.

Playing in front of essentially a home crowd Missouri jumped out to a 10-0 lead. But the Bulldogs clawed back into it, ultimately taking a 9 point lead. Mizzou wouldn’t go quietly, however, battling back to tie it. Ironically it wasn’t Michael, but his brother Jontay who led the Tigers with 20 points off the bench. That was almost as many (26) as the entire Show Me State starting five managed.

Yante Maten’s 21 points and 10 rebounds were good for his fourteenth double-double of the season. Teshaun Hightower provided an additional spark off the bench, chipping in 13 points of his own.

The game wasn’t salted away until the very end, with Missouri missing a pair of three pointers at the end that could have won it. Georgia also missed 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch which would have pushed the lead into two possessions. But in the end the Bulldogs did what they haven’t done at the end of the game so often this season: just enough to win.

They’ll be rewarded with a matchup tomorrow afternoon against 4 seed Kentucky. There’s still a long way to go before we talk about the Hoop Hounds’ season extending past St. Louis. But they’ve shown at least that, despite the rumors surrounding Coach Fox’s future, they still have a little bit of fight left in them.