The Missouri Tigers’ propensity for forcing turnovers ruined the return of Georgia’s Terrance Woodbury on Saturday, as the Tigers forced 23 Bulldog turnovers and beat Georgia 83-76 in Athens. Woodbury led Georgia with 27 points and DeMarre Carroll and Zaire Taylor scored 17 points apiece to pace Missouri. Taylor scored 13 of those points in the second half, including a 3-pointer in the midst of a Tiger run. “It was a three minute span where we let the game get away from us,” said Bulldog head coach Dennis Felton. “We strung together some turnovers, had a few defensive breakdowns, let them hit two 3’s, let them get a couple of second shots, but it’s no doubt in that stretch it started with the turnovers.”
Both teams battled back and forth early in the second half, before Missouri took a 43-40 lead with just over 13:00 left to play in the game. That is when Woodbury turned his game up another notch. Woodbury first drew a charge on the defensive end and then on the following Bulldog possession, converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to tie the game at 43-43. He next gave Georgia a 46-45 lead after draining a 3-point shot from the right wing, but his efforts would not be enough for a Bulldog win. “Obviously they were a good team,” Woodbury said. “I just feel like we had too many turnovers at a critical time in the game.”
Missouri went on a 14-4 run in that critical stretch following Woodbury’s basket, which was capped off by Taylor’s 3-pointer with 7:55 left to go in the game. “That’s how a team like that can get to you,” Felton said. “They can wear on you [and get you] fatigued.”
Much was the case in the first half, as the Bulldogs faired well early on, before Missouri went on a run. A Woodbury 3-pointer gave Georgia a 28-25 lead with 3:00 left in the first half, but the Tigers responded by going on a 7-0 run to end the half and take a 32-28 lead into intermission. During that run the Bulldogs continued their spell of turnovers, as they finished with 11 turnovers in the first half compared to Missouri’s three. For the game the Tigers had 10 turnovers. Missouri came into the contest forcing opponents to just under 20 turnovers per game.
Woodbury was 5-for-7 from the field, including 3-for-5 from behind the 3-point line the first half, for a team-high 13 points. His return was his first time on the floor for Georgia (9-5) in four games. The senior swingman was recovering after aggravating a preexisting ankle sprain. At the start of his absence he was the Bulldog’s leading scorer at 12.2 points per game. “I wasn’t as aggressive as usually am,” Woodbury said. “That’s just due to my foot. My foot’s still hurting. I wasn’t even sure that I was playing today.”
Trey Thompkins was a perfect 3-for-3 in the opening half, scoring seven points as he finished with 18 points for the game. Travis Leslie was the only other Bulldog in double-figure points as he finished with 10.
In addition to being the finale of a six-game home stand in which Georgia went 4-2, the matchup with the Tigers (12-2) also represented the Bulldogs’ third meeting of the nonconference schedule with a major conference team. Georgia lost big to Illinois 76-42 and nipped Virginia Tech 67-66. The Bulldogs committed a season high 27 turnovers in the Illinois game. Missouri’s two previous losses were to Illinois and Xavier and the Tigers have wins over USC and California.
The Bulldogs will now go on the road for the first time in more than a month when they head to Atlanta on Tuesday to face rival Georgia Tech at 7 p.m. “We looked to come in tomorrow and practice start preparing for Georgia Tech,” Thompkins said. “This game’s over. There’s nothing we can do about it now.”
“I know a lot of guys on the Georgia Tech team, so it will be a real exciting game,” he added. “We won the SEC on that court last year, so it’s been some trash talking between the two teams. It should be a fun game.”
The game will be Georgia’s last game before the team starts their SEC schedule next Saturday by hosting Tennessee.
Butler can be reached at jbutler@scoreatl.com.
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