Kentucky avoids late collapse, beats Missouri to stay alive in SEC Tournament
For the second time this season, Kentucky blew a substantial lead against the Missouri Tigers.
This time, the Cats came back to win it.
UK defeated Missouri 78-72 on Thursday afternoon after losing a 16-point advantage late in the game and making big plays down the stretch to stay alive in the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena.
Kentucky will play top-seeded Florida on Friday in the tournament quarterfinals.
With a nine-point lead coming out of halftime, Collin Chandler hit a 3-pointer on UK’s first possession of the second half, and — after a Missouri bucket — Kentucky turned two steals into four more points and a 45-31 with just a little more than two minutes ticking off the clock.
Otega Oweh, who picked up his third foul with 18:40 remaining and stayed in the game, made a 3 a short time later, then Chandler was fouled while shooting a 3 and made all three free throws to put the Cats ahead 53-37.
Mizzou got hot in the second half, however, going 11 for 14 over one stretch — with most of those points coming at the rim — to cut Kentucky’s lead to 60-55 with nearly 10 minutes still left to play. Two free throws made it a 60-57 game at the under-8 timeout of the second half.
With the shot clock about to run out, Chandler pump-faked into an open 3-pointer and made it to give the Cats a 63-57 lead on UK’s first possession out of that timeout.
That didn’t do anything to slow the rally by the Tigers, who kept making shots and took a 70-69 lead on Mark Mitchell’s bucket with 2:34 left. That capped a stretch in which Mitchell scored 14 points in a little more than seven minutes of play.
Kentucky took the lead right back, though, with Aberdeen hitting two free throws and then Oweh scored on a driving layup to put the Cats ahead 73-70. Aberdeen basically clinched it on a driving layup with 22 seconds left to give UK a 75-70 lead. Missouri never made it a one-possession game after that.
“I seen Mark Mitchell coming to close out,” Aberdeen told SEC Now after the game of his shot, which narrowly beat the shot-clock buzzer. “I was trying to see if I could lean into him, get a foul call from 3, but he kind of jumped to the side. So I seen a wide-open lane. I took it, tried to get a play off two feet and just made the layup.”
Oweh led the Cats with 21 points. Aberdeen had 16 points, seven assists and just one turnover. Chandler was 5 for 6 from the field and scored 15 points.
Mitchell was the spark for Missouri’s second-half comeback attempt and led all scorers with 32 points. He scored 23 of those points after halftime.
Kentucky controlled the first half despite having major foul trouble at key positions.
The Cats jumped out to a 14-7 lead in the opening minutes and capitalized on solid defense throughout the opening period to set the tone. While Mizzou fought back to tie the game at 16, the Tigers never led after falling into an early hole.
After tying the score at 20 with 8:30 left in the half, Missouri missed eight consecutive attempts from the field, with Kentucky’s defense forcing turnovers and putting the Tigers in position to take bad shots. UK went on an 8-0 run during the Mizzou drought.
The Cats kept extending the lead, getting up by as many as 12 points in the first half and going into the halftime locker room with a 38-29 advantage.
Kentucky was able to maintain the lead even with its top backcourt players in foul trouble.
Chandler picked up his second foul with 12:44 left in the half. Aberdeen was called for his second foul with 11:55 remaining. Jasper Johnson played fewer than four minutes before he got his second foul with 8:55 left in the half. Oweh was whistled for his second foul with 4:54 remaining.
All four guards continued to play at various points in the half, despite the two fouls.
UK also built the early lead while running cold from the perimeter. The Cats were 2 for 11 on 3-pointers in the first half. They made up for that by outscoring Missouri 26-14 in the paint before halftime. Kentucky had five dunks, four layups and six mad free throws in the first half.
Pope’s team held Missouri to 37.0% shooting — and a 2 for 7 showing from deep — in the first 20 minutes of the game.
With the victory, the Cats avenged a loss to Missouri early in the SEC portion of the schedule. Kentucky blew an eight-point lead with five minutes remaining in that meeting, a 73-68 victory for the Tigers in Rupp Arena back on Jan. 7.
That game also marked the last time projected NBA lottery pick Jayden Quaintance played for the Cats and the final full game of the season for starting point guard Jaland Lowe.
Kentucky was widely projected as a 7 seed for the NCAA Tournament before Thursday’s game, which should only improve the Cats’ outlook heading into Selection Sunday.
A win over Florida, which is projected to be a 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, would serve as a major boost to UK’s résumé. The Cats and Gators will play at 1 p.m. ET Friday on ESPN.
This story was originally published March 12, 2026 at 3:07 PM.
