SEC basketball final: Kentucky Wildcats 91, Missouri Tigers 83
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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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Kentucky men’s basketball closes out its regular season with an SEC matchup against the Missouri Tigers on Saturday at Mizzou Arena. ESPN television has the noon tipoff. Tom Hart and Dane Bradshaw are on the call.
Ben Roberts, Ryan Hermens and yours truly will be reporting from courtside, Cameron Drummond and Mark Story will be monitoring the telecast. You can follow Ben’s updates on Bluesky at @benrobertshl. You can follow the rest of us on X/Twitter at @markcstory, @ryanhermens, @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv.
You can follow a dedicated Kentucky basketball X/Twitter list by clicking here.
Final: Kentucky 91, Missouri 83
Andrew Carr coming up big
Missouri had cut Kentucky’s lead to 72-67 before UK’s Andrew Carr made one of two free throws, then on the next possession jammed home a missed shot to put the Cats back up 75-67. Missouri calls time with 3:15 left. Carr has 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Missouri trying to mount a comeback
Missouri has cut Kentucky’s lead to 66-57 with 7:23 left. Tigers are on a 6-0 run. Cats have missed last shots.
Kentucky on fire from 3-point range
Kentucky 62, Missouri 48 with 11:33 left. Cats are 10-of-16 from 3-point range. Koby Brea is 3-of-4. Collin Chandler and Andrew Carr each 2-of-3.
Kentucky extends lead
Kentucky 49-37 with 15:36 left. Cats extended the lead to 46-32 on an Andrew Carr 3-pointer. UK is 9-of-15 from beyond the arc for the game. Missouri is 4-of-15.
Halftime: Kentucky 38, Missouri 29
Halftime: Kentucky 38, Missouri 29. Excellent defensive staff by the Cats. Missouri was 11-of-31 from the field for 35.5%. Tigers were 3-of-11 from 3. Kentucky was 7-of-12 from 3. Collin Chandler hit a 3 with four seconds left in the half. Koby Brea leads UK with 11 points.
Kentucky 24-20 with 3:58 left in first half
Kentucky 24, Missouri 20 with 3:58 left in first half. Koby Brea and Andrew Carr each with six points. Cats shooting 36.4%. Missouri just 28%. Excellent defensive half by Mark Pope’s club to this point. Each team has five turnovers.
Kentucky goes on an 11-0 run
Kentucky up 18-13 with 7:41 left. Cats had an 11-0 run for a 15-11 lead. UK shooting 35.3 percent. Mizzou shooting 26.3%. Cats are 5-of-8 from 3. Koby Brea a perfect 2-of-2 from deep. Travis Perry nailed a 3 from the left corner just before the shot-clock buzzer.
Missouri up 11-7 with 11:09 left in first half
Missouri 11-7 with 11:09 left in first half here at Mizzou Arena. Cats are 2-of-11 from the floor. Missouri is 4-of-17. UK is 2-of-5 from 3 and 0-6 from 2. Missouri’s Anthony Robinson has missed all five of his shots. UK’s Lamont Butler has two fouls.
Kentucky starts cold
Kentucky missed five of its first six shots as Missouri takes an early 7-3 lead. UK’s Andrew Carr did hit a 3-pointer, but the Cats missed their other two attempts from beyond the arc. Missouri’s Tony Perkins has five early points.
Officials for Kentucky-Missouri
Officials for the Kentucky at Missouri game are Don Daily, Jeb Hartness and Lucas Santos.
Scouting report: Missouri
After going 0-18 in SEC play a year ago, Missouri is 10-7 in the conference and 21-9 overall. The Tigers lost 96-84 at Oklahoma on Wednesday. They are No. 5 in KenPom’s overall adjusted efficiency rankings and No. 5 in adjusted defensive efficiency. They are 69th in adjusted defensive efficiency after allowing the Sooners to shoot 57.1% and average 1.384 points per possession.
In this third year at Mizzou, Dennis Gates is 54-43 overall and 21-32 in the SEC. The coach spent nine seasons as an assistant to Leonard Hamilton at Florida State before taking over at Cleveland State. His CSU team lost to Mark Pope’s BYU team 69-59 in Provo in the 2021-22 season opener.
Missouri’s most interesting player comes off the bench. Caleb Grill is a 6-foot-3 senior transfer who played one year at Iowa State, one year at UNLV, two years at Iowa State, then last season in just nine games at Missouri. This season, Grill is third in the SEC in 3-point shooting at 42.6%, behind Oklahoma’s Brycen Goodine (44.0) and Kentucky’s Koby Brea (43.5). Grill has scored 20 or more points in five SEC games. He has made five or more 3-pointers in three SEC games.
Scouting report: Kentucky
Coach Mark Pope’s Kentucky Wildcats are 20-10 overall and 9-8 in the SEC. They routed LSU 95-64 on Tuesday night. The Cats are 16th in the KenPom adjusted overall efficiency rankings. They are sixth in adjusted offensive efficiency and 56th in adjusted defensive efficiency.
UK is 3-5 in SEC road games. It won at Mississippi State (95-90), Tennessee (78-73) and Oklahoma (83-82). It lost on the road to Georgia (82-69), Vanderbilt (74-69), Ole Miss (98-84), Texas (82-78) and Alabama (96-83). Missouri is 7-1 in conference home games. Its lone loss was to Texas A&M (67-64).
Kentucky guard Otega Oweh is a road warrior. Oweh has scored 20 or more points in four of the Wildcats’ eight league road games. In UK’s last game away from home, the win at Oklahoma on Feb. 26, Oweh scored 28 points, including his team’s final 18. He scored the game-winner with 6.1 seconds remaining.
This story was originally published March 8, 2025 at 11:00 AM.
