Wow! What a way to begin conference with a quality win on the road. Georgia beat Mizzou yesterday behind a strong team effort and great performances from Noah Thomasson, Justin Hill and Russel Tchewa.

Opening conference play on the road is never an easy task and Georgia was able to go into Columbia, Missouri on Saturday afternoon and pull out a huge win. Georgia began the game red hot from 3 (8-12 in the 1st Half) and that enabled them to get out to a 17 point lead (38-21) in the first half. Missouri was quickly able to respond and cut the Georgia lead to 40-38 at halftime. Georgia played a great 15 minutes then a awful 5 minutes but having the lead at the half on the road is still big. The second half was a true back and forth dog fight and neither team could pull away from the other. It was a single digit game the entire second half but in the final 4 minutes Georgia’s defense really stepped up and led them to victory. Missouri only scored 3 points in the final 4:45 of the game and Georgia’s defense had a lot to do with that. Silas Demary also played great down the stretch and hit a huge 3 to put Georgia up 4 with 3:30 left in the game. After that point, Georgia controlled the game and was able to do just enough at the free throw line to salt the win away.

Justin Hill finished the game with 16 points and 4 assists and I feel like he could play a lot better. The whole game felt like he was a little too sped up and dribbling a bit too much but he was able to hit big 3 pointers when it mattered. Coach White always says Hill is Georgia’s most clutch player and while he looked rushed at times he was still able to hit some clutch shots. It would be great to see Hill calm down a little on the offense end because he throws some shots up that feel like they have no chance at going in sometimes but when he is open he can shoot it. 

Noah Thomasson had a huge first half and allowed the Dawgs to get out to the big first half lead. I expected this type of half for Noah because of his experience and leadership to this Georgia team and he led by example. Noah had 15 points on 6-9 shooting but he had 13 at half time. He loves the step back 3 point jumper and when he has that cooking he becomes really difficult to guard. I would like to see Georgia find Noah more when he has it going but he played well throughout on both sides of the ball. 

The MVP of the game goes to Russel Tchewa who had 18 points (5-5 shooting) and 11 rebounds. This was by far the best Tchewa has looked all season and it showed in the stat sheet. He was just a dominant physical force down low and Georgia will need to have him looking like that all year to compete for a tournament spot. Maybe Tchewa just need to here the letters “S-E-C” to become more physical and dominant low because he was incredible tonight. Tchewa needs to provide that every night and Georgia will be a force to be reckoning with.

Georgia opens home conference play on Wednesday Night at 9PM against Arkansas. The Razorbacks got obliterated by Auburn on Saturday so they will come into Stegman desperate for a win. It should be a great matchup! Preview to come on Tuesday.