Mizzou Men’s Basketball
Mizzou 68, Georgia 56
Postgame Quotes
Mizzou Head Coach Cuonzo Martin
Opening statement…
“Good win. Georgia is a real tough team. They make you work to score. I thought once we settled in late in the first half and then in the second half, I think it set the tone for us. We were able to make some adjustments. Coming off a tough game and unfortunately, in league play, you don’t have a lot of time to turnaround, you have to get rolling. I was happy to see our guys bounce back the way they did.”
On starting Jontay Porter…
“The reason for starting Jontay was just to allow Kevin (Puryear) to relax. I thought the previous two games, Kevin played well, even though the numbers didn’t show it. It was more for Kevin, just to get him a peace of mind, relax, regroup. Just let the game come to him, and you saw that tonight with him being aggressive, reading the defense, being strong and physical, playing tough. It was more of that than what Jontay is or isn’t doing. But I thought Jontay played well, he has good length and good instincts. I thought he did a good job.”
On first half shooting…
“I think this game had a lot to do with Georgia. I think part of it was coming off that last game, getting over that mental hump. What is important for us is making the extra cut, the extra pass and the extra drive, because the way their defense is set, the first option is never open, it’s the second or third. And then all of a sudden you can make a play. In those first 17 minutes, we were trying to make the play on the first one.”
Mizzou freshman forward Jeremiah Tilmon
On staying on the floor…
“It felt great. I try my best to stay out of foul trouble, and it worked for me today.”
On the defensive approach to Maten…
“In practice, we worked on forcing him left and shoot over the right shoulder. We just tried to make him go to that left hand.”
On what it’s like playing with Jontay Porter on the floor at the same time…
“Honestly, I feel like the defense can’t double team, because if you double me, I’m going to kick it out to him and he’s going to knock the shot down.”
Mizzou junior forward Kevin Puryear
On how it felt to get it going in the second half…
“It felt pretty good. I’ve been struggling to see the ball go through the hoop lately, but tonight I really tried to put my focus in other areas. Just being aggressively defensively and everything else will take care of itself eventually. Fortunately, it did, which is a good sight to see. And not only myself, but to see other guys make good plays down the stretch as well.”
On the defensive approach to stopping Maten…
“I thought we did a really good job on him. Of course he is predicted All-SEC First Team, 20-point scorer, and averaging 9.4 rebounds coming into tonight. And tonight he had nine points and two rebounds, so we did a great job. Guarding a player like that who is capable of scoring the way he is, I think that requires a team effort, and we did a great job tonight.”
