Kentucky Overcomes Late Missouri Rally in SEC Tournament; Cats Now Face Florida
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
By Jamie H. Vaught
KySportsStyle.com Magazine
NASHVILLE -- The No. 9 seed Kentucky survived and advanced to Friday's SEC Tournament showdown (1 p.m. ET on ESPN) with No. 1 seed and fourth-ranked Florida after defeating a respectable Missouri team 78-72 Thursday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena.
Missouri, now 20-12, was a team that had beaten ranked teams Florida, Vanderbilt and Tennessee this season. In addition, the Tigers nearly stopped then-No. 20 Arkansas in overtime before losing 88-84 in Columbia last week.
After Kentucky (21-12) raced to a 53-37 lead, its largest margin, in the early second half, Missouri slowly bounced back and came out ahead at 70-69 with 2:34 remaining. But the Wildcats survived with clutch free throws and a driving basket by senior Denzel Aberdeen, and a driving layup by senior Otega Oweh in the final minute.
Oweh led UK with a team-high 21 points with Aberdeen and Collin Chandler adding 16 and 15 points, respectively. Aberdeen, who hit 7 of 8 free throws, also had a team-high seven assists.
Junior Mouhamed Dioubate also had a good performance, adding nine points.
After giving up a 16-point lead in the second half, Kentucky coach Mark Pope praised his team as the Cats kept their composure and didn't panic like some teams would.
Said Pope, "Our guys are good. Listen, we've been really blessed to be all over the map in games. Up big, down big, sways big. Our guys and staff are good at staying focused in the moment, understanding what's happening. Credit Missouri. We were in a place where we felt comfortable. They just said we're going to bully you inside. They bullied us inside. Our guys are pretty well-trained. They've adopted trying to stay as steady as they can, focus on finding answers and solutions rather than getting sideways with scenarios. They did a good job with that today."
Making the critical free throws helped the Wildcats win as they sank 18 of 23 shots for 78.3 percent. Interestingly, Kentucky was ranked No. 12 in the 16-team SEC in free throw shooting with 72.4 percent entering the Missouri game.
UK will be looking for its first win against Florida this season after dropping to the Gators twice.
"We haven't had the success we wanted to so far," Pope said of Florida. "They're a team that
you have to manage in transition first and foremost. You have to manage them on the glass. If you don't do those two things, you don't have a chance. Then there's a bunch of other things on the list. There's no secret about how the way they play. Just really good at it. Really in our league, nobody's really found an answer to that yet. We're hoping we'll have some success tomorrow."
Added Dioubate, "I think we got to be the more physical team tomorrow. We got be the ones that impose our will early. We got to win the rebounding battle and be the most physical team, just play our game, play together. I think we'll be all right."
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of seven books about UK basketball, including newly published “Unforgettable Journey with the Cats: Inside Kentucky Hoops Madness.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle44@gmail.com.
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