What went wrong for Missouri Tigers basketball in road loss to Kentucky Wildcats

Missouri basketball kept it close for a majority of the 40 minutes against No. 6 Kentucky, but it didn’t have enough juice as it fell 90-77 to the Wildcats on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena.

This one was different from when these two teams faced off in December 2022.

There were no DeAndre Gholston, D’Moi Hodge and Kobe Brown to save them against John Calipari’s Wildcats. Instead, the game resembled the previous eight times that Missouri visited Kentucky, as the Tigers are now 0-9 all-time in Lexington, Kentucky.

Missouri got inspiring efforts from Noah Carter, Sean East II and Tamar Bates, but a deeper Kentucky team simply was just better on Tuesday night.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

Sloppy play puts the Tigers in a hole

Early on, both teams were battling it out. But like several games before, Missouri made it harder on itself.

Kentucky (12-2, 2-0 SEC) led Missouri 14-12 a little over four minutes into the contest. Unfortunately and uncharacteristically for the Tigers (8-7, 0-2), the turnover bug plagued the team for the next three minutes.

A turnover by Bates led to a pair of free throws by Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves. On the next offensive possession, a bad pass by Nick Honor turned into a trio of free throws for D.J. Wagner after being fouled by Honor. Shortly thereafter, East turned the ball over, resulting in points, and an illegal screen by Jesus Carralero-Martin resulted in another scoring opportunity for Kentucky.

After being down by just two points, Missouri found itself down eight at the 13:22 mark. The closest the Tigers would come the rest of the way would be three points shortly before the end of the half.

Despite the loss, Noah Carter ends a tough stretch

Prior to Tuesday, the previous six games marked a tough stretch for MU’s Noah Carter.

In four games against Wichita State, Kansas, Seton Hall and Illinois, Carter tallied 33 points total, 8.2 per game. He did not reach the double-digit mark in any of those contests.

Against Central Arkansas, he scored 11 points, and he continued to trend up with 13 in the Tigers’ previous matchup against Georgia.

But in a tough environment at Rupp Arena, Carter became a silver lining for MU. In the first half alone, he scored 11 points. A tough shot off a beautiful pass from Sean East II helped pull Missouri within seven going into the break. He finished with 20 points on 6-for-12 shooting, including knocking down a trio of 3-pointers. Carter also grabbed three rebounds and two steals.

Missouri’s bench is nowhere to be found for the second game in a row

Against Georgia, Missouri got double-digit scoring from starters Carter, East, Bates and Aidan Shaw. The Tigers’ bench? Just three points from Carralero-Martin.

Did that improve against Kentucky on Tuesday night? Yes, but not by much.

Along with Carter’s contributions, East, the heart and soul of Missouri this season, tallied 10 points. Tamar Bates added 18 points and matched Carter by shooting 6-for-12. Those three combined for 57 of Missouri’s 77 points on the night.

Nick Honor and Shaw combined for just eight points. Off the bench, Connor Vanover and Jesus Carralero Martin scored four points each. Curt Lewis and Mabor Majak logged minutes and didn’t register a single point in the loss while John Tonje scored just two points on a pair of free throws.

Kentucky on the other hand had five players score in double-digits in its 13-point victory.

The Star has partnered with the Columbia Daily Tribune for coverage of Missouri Tigers athletics.