Kentucky Falls to Missouri 73-68

By Hayden Kennedy

Kentucky hosted the Missouri Tigers on Wednesday night at Rupp Arena, losing in disappointing fashion, 73-68. UK's record falls to 9-6, including an 0-2 start in conference play.

Otega Oweh of Kentucky drives against Missouri Wednesday night at Rupp Arerna. UK lost to Missouri 73-68. (Photo by David Rearic)

Senior Otega Oweh led the Wildcats in scoring with 20 points, shooting 6 of 11 from the field, including 3 of 4 from the three-point line, one of which came from beyond half-court. This marks Oweh’s fourth 20-point game this season, all of which have come within the last six games.

Oweh would be the only player for Kentucky to end the night in double figures, his 18th straight game doing so, dating back to last season, with Jaland Lowe and Malachi Moreno each scoring nine points.

Kentucky led 66-58 with 4:37 left to play in the second half, but Missouri would go on to have a 15-2 run to end the game with Jayden Quaintance and Mo Dioubate both on the bench.

Asked about Missouri’s closing stretch, UK sophomore Kam Williams said, “They were just making shots and we were missing shots to sum it up. Pretty good guard play, good wings, good bigs. They played together. They knew where they wanted to go and, in late game scenarios, they found them.”

Slow starts have been a recurring issue for Coach Mark Pope and the Wildcats.

"I guess it’s just putting more points on the board, trying to play with extra pace. Coach has been emphasizing about playing a little faster," added Williams. "So, I guess we just didn’t play fast enough to win this game. But we get to practice tomorrow and just get ready for the next game.”

Kentucky is 2-6 this season when trailing or tied at halftime. 

Pope was asked what his message to the team was and to the fanbase, saying, “It’s a hard space.  This is tough, it is not the way we intended to start SEC. But it is exactly what we have in our hands right now.  When you go through hard times, which everybody does, the question is how much does it take to break you?  And I’m not about to break, this group is not about to break, and we are no place there.  The only thing you can do is grieve as quickly as possible and move on to the next incredibly challenging game, which we have on Saturday.

"With the effort of trying to get better. These guys will.  BBN has the right to do and say and act however they want, they are the greatest fans in the world and I’m sure they are incredibly, incredibly frustrated and upset.  So, they get the right to do whatever they want. In terms of this team, we don’t have that opportunity. Our job is to suffer all night long, figure out how to do this a little bit better, get a little bit tougher, dig in a little bit harder, execute a little bit more well and move on and win games.”

Kentucky will welcome the Mississippi State Bulldogs on Saturday, January 10. The contest will be shown on the SEC Network at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Hayden Kennedy, a recent UK graduate, is a contributing writer from Lexington. 

Box Score