There is no questioning Missouri’s willingness to fight. But the Tigers keep getting outpunched.

Mizzou trailed by as many as 14 during the first half of its road game at No. 6 Kentucky on Tuesday, but clawed back to get within three before the period ended. While the visitors stayed competitive with the Wildcats the rest of the way, they were never able to complete the comeback, falling inside Rupp Arena, 90-77.

“I feel like we got good shots,” graduate senior forward Noah Carter said. “You know, it was just a little stretch where we couldn't see the ball go through the hoop. I mean, credit to them, they did play good defense, they ramped it up. But I feel like we did get good shots and, you know, we just couldn't get some to fall.”

The Tigers settled into a groove in the opening minutes of the contest. Graduate senior guard Nick Honor drained a 3-pointer with the team’s first possession. Carter hit back-to-back field goals the next couple of trips down. Graduate senior guard Sean East II and junior guard Tamar Bates both got mid-range jumpers to fall. By the under-16 media timeout, MU was 5-8 from the floor and only trailed Kentucky (12-2, 2-0 SEC) by one score, 14-12.

However, head coach Dennis Gates chose to sub in junior guard Curt Lewis and senior forward Jesus Carralero Martin for Honor and Carter after the break, which seemed to disrupt the team’s rhythm. Missouri committed turnovers with its next two trips down the floor, resulting in five free throws for Kentucky.

It was all the Wildcats needed to start creating distance from the Tigers. Midway through the first, Kentucky extended the lead to 35-21 with a trey from freshman guard Rob Dillingham.

Mizzou bounced back immediately. Bates got a basket to drop from the paint and East picked up five points on the next two possessions. Carter cashed in on a 3 and East hit an and-1 layup and free throw. The visitors tightened up on defense, too, limiting the Wildcats to just one make during the stretch, going on a 13-2 run that slashed the deficit down to one possession.

“Our goal as a team is to always, you know, we're trying to get three stops in a row,” Carter said. “And we were just getting into stretches and we were playing great defense. And, yeah, that's our goal defensively. So when we're able to go on runs like that defensively, that's that's what we're trying to do.”

The Tigers couldn’t get over the hump, though. Kentucky got a steal and a dunk a few possessions later to go back up by two scores and Missouri went into halftime trailing 47-42. The team had another opportunity to tie things up at the start of the second half after Bates earned a trip to the foul line and hit both his free throws to make it a three-point game again. But the Wildcats scored on their next two trips down to make it 51-44.

For roughly the next 16 minutes, Mizzou trailed by between seven and 11 points, never letting Kentucky pull away but never doing quite enough to mount a serious rally. The hosts finally extended their lead in the final two minutes, handing the black and gold the 90-77 loss.

While they managed to earn 16 trips to the stripe in the second half, the Tigers connected on just one of their last 15 field goals in the game — a complete reversal from how the evening started. Carter finished the night leading the team with 20 points to go along with three rebounds and two steals. He was followed by East with 19 and Bates with 18.

“We gotta make the open shots,” Gates said. “And when you look at the shots that we got — and I'll have to watch the film to get the chronological order of it — I probably would do the same. What I'm happy about that didn't take place last game was the fact that in that stretch, we were able to get to the free throw line a little bit … We gotta be able to close the gap, get the get to those tough baskets in the paint. But our shooters were able to shoot and maybe at that point in time, we gotta concentrate a little bit more.”

Before Tuesday’s game tipped off, the Tigers announced that freshman point guard Anthony Robinson II was ruled out due to a non-COVID illness. But the team’s other first-year players, forwards Jordan Butler and Trent Pierce, ended up being healthy scratches.

Gates instead chose to give extended playing time to graduate senior guard John Tonje and senior walk-on center Mabor Majak, who’d combined for four minutes of action across the team’s past three games.

The two ended up being the only players to have a positive plus/minus for Mizzou during the game. Tonje had two points, two rebounds and an assist, going plus-8 in 12 minutes. And Majak pulled down a rebound during his eight minutes of play, helping the team outscore the Wildcats by four during his time on the floor.

“You know, (it's) just a decision. Those guys were playing well,” Gates said. “But those guys ended up being the only two guys in the positive. And I thought physically, their strength allowed us to do certain things defensively.”

The Tigers (8-7, 0-2 SEC) will return to Mizzou Arena looking to recuperate against South Carolina (13-2, 1-1) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m., the game airing on SEC Network.

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