Sluggish second half on defensive end leads to Missouri rout over Georgia

Here are five thoughts following Missouri's 68-56 win over Georgia.

Maten held in check

Georgia (11-4, 2-2 SEC) has gotten offensive production from plenty of players this season. But each game out, forward Yante Maten has done a good job at being consistent as a scorer. Entering the Missouri game, Maten averaged 20 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.

It was a stunning development Wednesday for Maten to be held to only nine points and two rebounds. Georgia won't win basketball games when Maten is unable to get it going. The Bulldogs were unable to find a rhythm with their star player, nor were they able to get him the necessary touches he needs.

And a lot of that has to do with the Missouri defense. Credit Kevin Puryear down low for doing a number on Maten. And credit the other Missouri defenders for fronting Maten well in the post. Entry lanes were limited and Maten rarely had easy looks. This game had more to do with Missouri's defense than Maten's performance.

Sluggish defense

Since the upset loss at Massachusetts, Georgia's defense has played exceptionally well -- even in the program's 66-61 loss to Kentucky. That continued in the first half, when it held Missouri (12-4, 2-1) to only 20 points at the break. In the second half, things changed dramatically.

Missouri's ball movement on offense got the Georgia defense out of sync, which first led to some open looks under the basket. And once the frontcourt got going, the Tigers were finally able to knock some deep shots down. Missouri, a good 3-point shooting team, had a dismal night statistically at 5-of-20 from long range. But four of those 3-pointers were made in the second half.

Kassius Robertson hit some big shots in some key moments to hurt Georgia's comeback chances. Robertson went 3-of-5 from the perimeter. In the second half, Georgia gave up 48 points, which usually doesn't bode well for the final score.

Free-throw disparity

With Missouri playing the post well, Georgia could not get the ball inside. In turn, the Bulldogs were unable to get to the free-throw line at the rate the Tigers were.

Georgia went 100 percent shooting at the free-throw line. The only problem was that this number constituted in five makes in as many attempts. Missouri went to the line for 17 free throws and made 15. Losing the free-throw battle by 10 points proved hard to overcome.

Missouri's advantage in turnovers

For Georgia, committing 12 turnovers isn't all that bad. This is a team that, while improved in this area, has been prone to giving up the basketball.

But the problem was that when Georgia turned the ball over Wednesday, it was unable to keep Missouri from capitalizing. On the 12 turnovers, the Tigers were able to score 16 points. Conversely, Georgia turned Missouri over only six times and scored two points off of those.

12-man rotation

Georgia went 12 deep against Missouri and distributed the minutes quite a bit.

The only player to reach 30 minutes of playing time in this game was freshman forward Rayshaun Hammonds. Hammonds, in exactly 30 minutes on the court, scored seven points. Maten and Turtle Jackson saw 27 minutes on the floor.

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 11:12 PM with the headline "Sluggish second half on defensive end leads to Missouri rout over Georgia."