Five things you need to know from No. 19 Kentucky’s 91-83 win over No. 15 Missouri
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Game day: No. 19 Kentucky 91, No. 15 Missouri 83
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Missouri in Columbia, Mo.
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Five things you need to know from No. 19 Kentucky’s 91-83 win over No. 15 Missouri in the 2024-25 regular-season finale:
1. Another high-level win for UK. In what has been an up-and-down season for Kentucky (21-10, 10-8 SEC), the highs have been memorable.
The Wildcats’ victory over Missouri, No. 15 in the AP poll and No. 17 in the NET rankings, makes Kentucky 7-3 against teams that were ranked in the NET top 20 (through games of Friday night).
UK is now 10-9 in Quad 1 games. As these words are written, only Auburn (15) and Michigan State (11) have more Quad 1 victories than Kentucky.
As Kansas and Alabama can attest, beating Missouri on its home court has been no easy feat in 2024-25. UK joined Texas A&M as the only teams to beat Mizzou in Columbia this season in 20 Tigers home games.
Kentucky will enter postseason tournament play off a high, and having won three of its final four games.
2. Veterans come through for the Cats. As you want to see in March, Kentucky’s vets came up big Saturday.
Super-senior power forward Andrew Carr played his best game of the season. The 6-foot-11, 235-pound product of West Chester, Pennsylvania, finished with 16 points, 12 rebounds and three assists.
For the Wake Forest transfer, who has been slowed at times this season by back issues, it was the first double-double since Dec. 11.
Carr made the game’s pivotal play. Missouri had cut a 16-point lead to six, 73-67, and was riding a wave of momentum.
However, a follow jam by Carr with 3:13 left pushed the Kentucky lead back to eight and seemed to steady the Cats.
Fellow fifth-year players Koby Brea (17 points, four rebounds, two assists), Amari Williams (14 points, eight rebounds, two assists) and Lamont Butler (eight points, two assists) also played strong for UK.
Meanwhile, junior Otega Oweh scored 20 of his team-high 22 points in the second half and also had three steals.
3. Facing his hometown university. Former Henry Clay High School and Northern Kentucky University star Marques Warrick did not get much run for Missouri until midway through the second half when the UK lead was in double digits.
But when Warrick was finally given some time on the court, he made it count.
In the final 9:23 of the game, Warrick, a super-senior, scored 17 points and rallied the Tigers from 16 down to within five.
Warrick alone accounted for eight of the points in a 10-0 Missouri run that cut a 66-51 UK lead to 66-61.
For the game, Warrick — who played his high school basketball exactly three miles from Rupp Arena — made five of eight shots, four of six treys and three of four free throws.
Warrick, the all-time leading scorer at both Henry Clay (1,909 career points) and NKU (2,246 career points), scored his 17 points for Missouri vs. Kentucky in 14 minutes of total playing time.
Entering the game, the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Lexington product had appeared in 29 games for Mizzou and was averaging 6.5 points in 13.7 minutes a game.
Prior to Saturday, Warrick had scored in double figures eight times for Missouri, including scoring 19 against SEC regular-season champion Auburn and 16 against Arkansas and former UK head man John Calipari.
4. Road records of UK coaches in their first seasons. With the victory at Mizzou, Kentucky finished its first road season under Mark Pope with a 4-6 record on opponents’ home courts.
Starting with Adolph Rupp, this is the road record of all UK coaches in their first seasons:
▪ Adolph Rupp, 1930-31: 3-2.
▪ Joe B. Hall, 1972-73: 7-4.
▪ Eddie Sutton, 1985-86: 11-3.
▪ Rick Pitino, 1989-90: 1-10.
▪ Tubby Smith, 1997-98: 12-0.
▪ Billy Gillispie, 2007-08: 4-6.
▪ John Calipari, 2009-10: 6-2.
▪ Mark Pope, 2024-25: 4-6.
5. All-time wins race. Kentucky finished the 2024-25 regular season 21-10 and will enter the postseason leading Kansas (20-11) by six — 2,419 to 2,413 — in the men’s college basketball all-time victories race.
Bill Self’s Jayhawks ended their regular season with an 83-76 win over No. 24 Arizona Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Entering this season, UK had a five-game advantage, 2,398-2,393, over KU.
This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 2:50 PM.
