Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s dispiriting 73-68 loss to Missouri
Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 73-68 loss to Missouri:
1. The Kentucky starting lineup. Amid a pattern of slow starts for UK in high-level games this season, many Wildcats backers were clamoring for Mark Pope to insert one or both of Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance into the Wildcats’ starting five.
Pope gave the public what it wanted.
UK started both the 6-foot-10 Quaintance and the 6-2 Lowe, along with incumbent starters Otega Oweh, Mouhamed Dioubate and Denzel Aberdeen.
Kentucky was ahead 5-4 when Malachi Moreno checked in for Quaintance.
Still, even with the change in starters, Kentucky fell behind 19-12.
2. Cats let it get away late. When Otega Oweh drained a 3-pointer from the left corner off what was the best offensive ball movement of the Kentucky season to date, the Wildcats had a 66-58 lead with 4:35 left in the game.
Alas, the Wildcats would score only two more points the rest of the way and see Missouri end the game on a 15-2 run.
Mark Mitchell, the Duke transfer whom the UK defense had no answer for, put Mizzou ahead to stay, 69-68, with a shot in the lane with 36.2 seconds left.
Mitchell finished with 21 points.
Kentucky turned the ball over twice in the final minute and missed a contested layup.
Down 71-68 with a last-gasp shot to tie, Jaland Lowe was forced to take a contested, double-pump 3-pointer that came nowhere close to the bucket.
3. UK 3-point shooting. After Kentucky was outscored 45-12 from behind the arc in its 89-74 loss at then-No. 14 Alabama Saturday, the Cats actually had a narrow 21 points to 18 points edge vs. Mizzou.
UK went 7 of 18 from behind the arc, while Missouri was 6 of 17.
Oweh was 3 of 4 from behind the arc.
His second make was memorable.
With UK down 33-29 in the final seconds of the first half and Missouri seeking the final shot, Oweh stole the ball under the Tigers’ basket.
He took one dribble and launched a heave toward the Kentucky basket from just past the Missouri foul line just ahead of the first-half horn.
The ball swished cleanly, pulling the Wildcats within one, 33-32, at the half.
4. Pope now under .500 vs. high-level foes. With the loss to Missouri, Mark Pope’s record as Kentucky coach vs. teams from power conferences and Gonzaga dropped to 17-18.
UK went 15-12 in such games last year in Pope’s first season.
The Cats are now 2-6 against high-level foes so far in 2025-26.
5. Missouri is no longer “0 for Lexington.” Missouri’s win Wednesday night was its first ever over Kentucky in a game played in Lexington.
Prior to this season, Mizzou had gone 0-7 at Rupp Arena. The Tigers were 0-9 vs. UK in Lexington.
Prior to Wednesday night, the Tigers had only played UK close once in the Rupp Arena era. The first time the Tigers came to Rupp as an SEC foe for UK, they took the Wildcats into overtime before falling 90-83 in 2012-13.
All other Mizzou defeats at Rupp had been by double figures.
But that all changed Wednesday night.
This story was originally published January 7, 2026 at 9:25 PM.
