Kentucky beats Mizzou at SEC Tournament, advances to quarterfinals
By David Wasson
Published:
The Kentucky Wildcats kept burnishing their NCAA Tournament at-large resume Thursday, earning their second straight postseason win by holding off Missouri 78-72 to advance to the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
Ninth-seeded Kentucky (21-12) jumped out to a 38-29 halftime lead kept eighth-seeded Mizzou (20-12) at bay in the second half. The Wildcats will get top-seeded Florida in Friday’s quarterfinals (1 pm ET, ESPN) at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
The Wildcats, which thumped LSU 87-62 in the first round Wednesday, got 21 points from Otega Oweh, 16 points from Denzel Aberdeen and 15 points from Collin Chandler. Missouri’s Mark Mitchell exploded for a game-high 32 points in the loss, and the Tigers also got 13 points from T.O. Barrett.
Missouri and Kentucky were virtually identical in every statistical category Thursday, though the Tigers outrebounded the Wildcats 34-27 in the setback. Kentucky led by as much as 16 points with 14:33 remaining before Missouri began trimming the deficit – with a Mitchell jumper giving the Tigers a 70-69 lead with 2:34 to play. But Kentucky reeled off a 7-0 run to retake the lead and sealed the victory at the free-throw line.
Kentucky and Florida played twice during the regular season, with the Gators earning a 92-83 victory at the O’Connell Center on Feb. 14 and then downing the Wildcats 84-77 at Rupp Arena on March 7.
Here are the latest SEC Tournament odds on Kalshi:
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
