SEC college basketball final: Kentucky 90, Missouri 77

After an 87-85 win against Florida in its SEC opener, the Kentucky Wildcats return home to face the Missouri Tigers on Tuesday. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Karl Ravech and Jimmy Dykes will be on the call for ESPN.

Kentucky is 11-2 overall after the victory in Gainesville. Missouri is 8-6 overall and 0-1 in league play. The Tigers lost to Georgia in Columbia in their SEC opener last Saturday.

Ben Roberts, Mark Story, Cameron Drummond and yours truly will be at Rupp to document the action. You can follow us on Twitter/X at @BenRobertsHL, @markcstory, @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv.

You can follow a dedicated Kentucky basketball Twitter/X list by clicking here.

Final: Kentucky 90, Missouri 77

No. 6-ranked Kentucky improves to 12-2 overall and 2-0 in the SEC with a 90-77 victory over Missouri. The Tigers dropped to 8-7 overall and 0-2 in the league.

Missouri made one field goal the final 10:18 of the game. The visitors missed 13 straight shots at one point during that stretch. Missouri shot just 30.0 percent in the second half and 42.6 percent for the game. It was 8-of-28 from three-point range for 28.6 percent. The Tigers were 2-of-15 from three in the second half.

Tre Mitchell finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds for his second straight double-double. Rob Dillingham finished with 23 points for the Cats. Kentucky shot 50 percent for the game.

Final box

Kentucky 80-70 with 3:57 left

Cats up 80-70 on Missouri at the 3:57 mark. UK is 19-of-22 from the foul line. Antonio Reeves is 8-for-8 at the stripe.

Missouri not going away

Kentucky leads Missouri 75-66 with 7:35 left here at Rupp. Give Mizzou credit. Every time you think Kentucky is about to pull away, the Tigers hit a big shot or make a steal. Sean East leads the visitors with 19 points. Rob Dillingham leads UK with 18 points, but has four fouls.

Rob Dillingham is shining

Freshman guard Rob Dillingham is up to 18 points as Kentucky leads Missouri 71-60 with 11:07 left. Dillingham has made 6 of his 7 shots, including all 3 attempts from 3. He also has two steals and one turnover.

Kentucky 59-51 with 15:16 left

Cats have outscored Missouri 12-9 to lead 59-51 at the 15:16 mark. After a first half of zero points and two rebounds in 10 minutes, Justin Edwards scored four or UK’s first eight points of the second half. Tre Mitchell leads the Cats with 14 points.

Halftime: Kentucky 47, Missouri 42

Missouri shot 54.8 percent from the floor but trails UK 47-42 at the half. A former high school teammate of Romeo Langford, Sean East leads the Tigers with 15 points. Noah Carter has added 13. Carter was 3-of-4 from three as Dennis Gates’ club went 6-of-13 from behind the arc in the first 20 minutes.

After a hot start, Kentucky shot 46.8 percent the first half. The Cats were 5-of-15 from three, but 12-of-13 from the foul line. Rob Dillingham and D.J. Wagner each scored 11 points. Tre Mitchell scored 10.

First half box

Missouri hanging tough

Kentucky’s lead is 41-37 over Mizzou with 3:11 left in the first half. The visitors went on a 10-0 run to cut UK’s lead to 35-31 with 7:01 left. Tigers are shooting 57.7 percent from the floor. They’ve hit 6 of 11 three-point shots. Les East has 12 points. Noah Carter has 11. Rob Dillingham leads Kentucky with 11 points.

Rob Dillingham putting on a show

After playing what his head coach described as “awful” in the first half against Florida on Saturday, Rob Dillingam is having a much different first half against Missouri. The freshman guard has 11 points at the 7:52 mark as UK leads 35-28. Dillingham is 4-of-5 from the floor, including 2-of-2 from three. That includes a deep, deep three from the right wing that put the Cats up 35-21. Missouri has answered with seven straight points.

Kentucky up 28-21 with 11:41 left in first half

The Wildcats went on a 10-2 run for a 19-12 lead. The advantage has stretched to 28-21 with 11:41 left in the half. UK is -of-7 from the foul line and 9-of-13 from the floor. Cats have an 8-2 advantage in points off turnovers.

Tre Mitchell opens up hot

Kentucky’s Tre Mitchell opened UK’s scoring with a pair of made three-pointers. Not a lot of defense through the first segment. UK leads Missouri 14-12 with 15:57 left in the first half. Kentucky is 6-of-7 shooting from the floor. Missouri has made five of its eight shots. Mitchell has eight points.

Pregame information

Missouri basketball roster

Missouri basketball statistics

Kentucky basketball roster

Kentucky basketball statistics

Kentucky basketball game-by-game individual stats

Kentucky basketball game-by-game leaders

Kentucky-Missouri basketball history

AP Top 25 and Coaches’ Poll rankings

SEC men’s basketball statistics

Officials for Kentucky-Missouri

Officials for Kentucky-Missouri are Joe Lindsay, Byron Jarrett and Jeb Hartness.

Lindsay worked UK’s 81-66 win over Penn in Philadelphia on Dec. 9 and the Cats’ 96-70 victory over Illinois State on Dec. 29. Jarrett worked Kentucky’s 95-73 romp over Miami on Nov. 28 in the ACC/SEC Challenge. This is Hartness’ first Kentucky game this season. He worked two UK games last season — 74-71 win over LSU at Rupp and 85-71 victory over Georgia at Rupp.

Missouri on a bit of a slide

Missouri has struggled in its second season under head coach Dennis Gates. The Tigers bring an 8-6 record into Rupp. They have lost four of their last five games, including a 75-68 loss to visiting Georgia last Saturday.

Kenpom has the Tigers ranked No. 102. Missouri is 73rd in adjusted offensive efficiency and 143rd in adjusted defensive efficiency. Compare that to Kentucky, which is ranked No. 17 overall by Pomeroy. The Cats are eighth in adjusted offensive efficiency and 43rd in adjusted defensive efficiency.

Sean East leads the Tigers in scoring at 17.1 points per game and assists at 3.9. The 6-foot-3 senior guard from Louisville has made 21 of his 39 three-point shots for 53.8 percent. He averaged 7.3 points last season after transferring to Mizzou from John Logan Community College. He previously played one season at UMass and one season at Bradley. East played at New Albany High School in Indiana before playing at Combine Academy, a prep school in Lincolnton, North Carolina.

Missouri whipped Kentucky 89-75 last season in Columbia in the only meeting between the two clubs. With Gates arriving from Cleveland State, Missouri finished the year 25-10 after losing to Princeton in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

This year has not gone as swimmingly. Missouri lost 70-55 to Memphis, 73-64 to Kansas, 93-87 to Seton Hall and 97-73 to Illinois before the loss to Georgia.

Kentucky trying for a 2-0 SEC start

Kentucky is seeking its first 2-0 start in conference play since the 2020-21 season. That UK edition actually started 3-0 with wins at Mississippi State (78-73 in double overtime), over Vanderbilt (77-74) and at Florida (76-58). Alas, the Cats ended up 8-9 in league play and finished 9-16 overall after losing to Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament.

Since coming to Kentucky in 2009, John Calipari has started 2-0 in league play eight times — 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021.

Last year’s team started 1-3 in the SEC after the loss to Missouri, a win over LSU (74-71) and losses at Alabama (78-52) and at home to South Carolina (71-68). UK finished the year 12-6 in conference play.

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