Georgia Bulldogs roll over Missouri, likely into NCAA Tourney

The Georgia Bulldogs had one job — beat Missouri — to all but insure themselves of an NCAA Tournament bid, and they made sure there was no guesswork about the win.

Georgia (19-9, 10-6 SEC) took care of business and made sure that Missouri (8-21, 2-14 SEC) never really had a shot at a win, with a 68-44 win at Stegeman Coliseum. The win was Georgia’s third straight, and may have well been the victory that propelled them into the NCAA tournament.

While some experts already had Georgia in the tourney field, the feeling around Athens was that Georgia needed at least one more win to solidify their bid.

The Tigers failed to achieve their second straight win after ending a 13-game losing streak by beating Florida on Tuesday night. Mizzou shot horribly from the floor, hitting only 28.6 percent of their shots, and quickly falling behind by double-digits in the first half.

This was as dominating a performance as we’ve seen from the Bulldogs all season, as Missouri only had one lead in the entire game when it was 3-2 Tigers shortly following the opening tip-off.

Georgia Bulldogs

The win was exactly what Georgia needed, and in exactly the way they needed to do it, by absolutely dominating a last place opponent in every facet of the game.

Mark Fox practically emptied the bench today, giving 14 different players minutes, with forward Nemanja Djurisic leading all scorers with 14 points. Team leader Marcus Thornton chipped in eight points, seven rebounds and a block against the hapless Tigers.

The Bulldogs have two games remaining, with the No. 1 undefeated Kentucky Wildcats coming to call at Stegeman on Mar. 3, and then a trip to Auburn to close out the season on Mar. 7.