Kobe Brown scored 30 points as Missouri upset No. 19 Kentucky 89-75 Wednesday night in Columbia, Mo., in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams.
Brown, who earned SEC Player of the Week honors after scoring 31 points in a victory over then-No. 16 Illinois on Dec. 22, also had six rebounds against the Wildcats.
D’Moi Hodge scored 15 points and Sean East II and DeAndre Gholston added 12 each as the Tigers (12-1, 1-0 SEC) won for just the third time in 17 games against Kentucky.
Oscar Tshiebwe scored 23 points and grabbed 19 rebounds for the Wildcats (8-4, 0-1). Cason Wallace scored 19 points and Sahvir Wheeler had 12 points and eight assists.
Kentucky led only once in the game, 3-2. The Wildcats missed 15 of 23 shots from 3-point range, and their bench was outscored 33-13.
Missouri pushed the tempo from the opening tip and broke out to a 15-5 lead with Brown and Tre Gomillion scoring five points each.
The Wildcats missed 9 of 10 shots from 3-point range to start the game, but Tshiebwe kept them in the game with his offensive rebounding.
Kentucky cut the Missouri lead to 17-13 before East scored seven unanswered points for the Tigers.
Hodge hit a 3-pointer to extend Missouri’s lead to 27-14 with 6:39 left in the first half. Kentucky responded with a 10-5 run, capped by Tshiebwe’s three-point play, to trim the deficit to 32-24. But the Tigers pushed the lead to 42-30 at the half with Brown and East knocking down 3-point jumpers.
Brown scored the first five points of the second half as Missouri built a 47-30 advantage.
Adou Thiero came off the Kentucky bench to hit a 3-pointer and trigger a 10-2 surge that cut the Wildcats’ deficit to 54-44. Missouri answered with a 10-3 run as Hodge and Brown hit 3-pointers to re-establish control for good.
The Tigers kept the Wildcats out of sync with an effective zone defense and led by as many as 21 points late in the second half.
–Field Level Media
