Nick Honor takes a shot during Wednesday’s SEC Tournament game against Georgia. (Photo courtesy: SEC)

NCAA Men’s Basketball	1	2	Final
Missouri (8-24)	30	29	59
Georgia (17-15)	31	33	64

Terrance Williams
Staff Writer

NASHVILLE, TN — After leading for most of the second half, the University of Missouri men’s basketball team didn’t score for the final 3 minutes and 38 seconds, while its opponent, Georgia scored 12 straight points to pull out a 64-59 win in an SEC Tournament first round game at the Bridgestone Center.

Both teams struggled offensively most of the first half and for the first 10 minutes of the second.

Georgia shot 12 of 32 from the field for 37.5 percent in the opening half and still held a narrow 31-30 lead. That was largely because Missouri shot even worse, hitting just 36.7 percent of its field-goal tries (11 of 30).

In the second half, the Tigers asserted control early, especially on the defensive end.

They thus forged ahead, 43-35, outscoring the Bulldogs 13-4 over the half’s first six minutes.

Connor Vanover, Missouri’s 7-foot-5 center, was a force inside, rejecting three (UPDATE) Georgia field-goal tries and adversely affecting a number of others.

The end result was that Georgia went more than three minutes without a field goal at the start of the final half, and then nearly another six before registering its next one.

Missouri had trouble pulling away, however, because it encountered a scoring drought of its own – and eventually the Bulldogs’ offense finally started barking. Thomasson and Cain each hit a 3-pointer sandwiched around a Missouri driving layup by Anthony Robinson II, pulling UGA to within 47-44.

From there, the teams traded baskets until Cain hit two more threes that pulled the Dawgs to within one, 53-52, with just under six minutes remaining.

The Tigers scored the game’s next seven points, however, until again Georgia regrouped with Cain as its catalyst.

Though known mostly for his offense and particularly his range and accuracy on 3-pointers, Cain also came up with a key late play on defense. His steal and quick feed for an assist to teammate RJ Melendez for a layup cut the Missouri lead to 59-57.

When Melendez missed a bunny in traffic on UGA’s next possession, he ferociously went after his own rebound and got it. Then he fed Hill out on the perimeter, and Hill buried the 3-pointer that gave the Dawgs their first lead since halftime, 60-59, with 1:43 remaining.

UGA didn’t help itself by missing six of its first 10 free-throw attempts on the night.

Cain closed out his big night, though, with another play that wasn’t necessarily listed as a strength on his resume coming in. He grabbed the rebound of Carter’s missed 3-point attempt that would have tied the game with 4.4 seconds and was immediately fouled. He then added a pair of free throws to seal it, leaving Missouri blue and winless against SEC foes on the season.

The Tigers went 0-18 in the conference during the regular season and finish the year 8-24 overall. Georgia improved to 17-15 after finishing its regular season in the SEC at 6-12.

Missouri 59

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
10	Honor, Nick	*	35	4-16	2-9	4-5	1-1	2	0	1	0	0	2	14
02	Bates, Tamar	*	37	4-9	1-3	2-2	1-5	6	1	2	1	0	2	11
75	Vanover, Connor	*	34	5-7	0-0	0-0	3-7	10	2	2	2	3	1	10
55	East II, Sean	*	39	3-12	0-2	3-3	3-5	8	3	5	5	0	1	9
11	Pierce, Trent	*	4	0-1	0-1	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
35	Carter, Noah		31	5-12	1-5	0-0	2-4	6	3	4	3	1	1	11
14	Robinson II, Anthony		8	1-2	0-1	0-0	0-1	1	0	0	0	0	0	2
23	Shaw, Aidan		5	1-1	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	0	0	0	0	0	2
13	Carralero Martin, Jesus		5	0-0	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
00	Butler, Jordan		2	0-0	0-0	0-0	1-0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	3-3	6	0	0	1	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	23-60	4-21	9-10	14-28	42	11	14	12	5	7	59

Georgia 64

##	Player	GS	MIN	FG	3PT	FT	ORB-DRB	REB	PF	A	TO	BLK	STL	PTS
00	Cain,Blue	*	31	6-12	5-9	2-2	1-4	5	1	3	1	0	4	19
03	Thomasson,Noah	*	29	4-11	2-7	0-0	0-0	0	2	1	0	0	2	10
54	Tchewa,Russel	*	31	1-2	0-0	3-6	1-5	6	0	2	0	1	0	5
04	Demary Jr.,Silas	*	27	0-4	0-1	0-0	3-2	5	3	2	0	0	1	0
13	James,Dylan	*	18	0-5	0-2	0-2	1-4	5	1	3	3	0	1	0
11	Hill,Justin		29	6-12	3-6	2-2	0-2	2	2	3	1	0	0	17
15	Melendez,RJ		15	4-7	2-4	0-0	1-2	3	1	1	1	0	0	10
10	Sunahara,RJ		11	1-1	0-0	0-0	0-2	2	0	0	1	2	0	2
23	DeLoach,Jalen		9	0-1	0-0	1-2	1-1	2	0	2	2	0	1	1
TM	TEAM		0	0-0	0-0	0-0	1-1	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Totals	–	200	22-55	12-29	8-14	9-23	32	10	17	9	3	9	64