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COLUMBIA, Mo. — The Tigers got caught up in the moment, or maybe the moment caught up to them. Regardless, a hype train that was full steam ahead a couple of weeks ago is borderline off the rails.

No. 15 Missouri fell 91-83 at home to No. 19 Kentucky on Saturday, with lackluster offense digging too big a hole for a late rally to cover up.

Forward Mark Mitchell did what he could, scoring 22 points, but was alone for most of the game in his Atlantean effort to compete.

The Wildcats (21-10 overall, 10-8 Southeastern Conference) handed the Tigers (21-10, 10-8) their first three-game losing streak of the season — just before the start of the postseason.

Mizzou’s SEC Tournament seeding won’t be finalized until later Saturday because it is dependent on other results around the league. By losing, the Tigers can finish at best seventh in the standings, and only if Mississippi loses at Florida. If Ole Miss wins, Missouri will be the No. 8 seed in the conference tournament.

The loss is only MU’s second inside Mizzou Arena this season. With only neutral site games to come in the postseason, the Tigers finished their regular season 18-2 at home.

Guard Marques Warrick and forward Jacob Crews were the only Mizzou players besides Mitchell to score in double figures, with 17 and 12 points respectively. The Tigers shot just 41% from the field.

Four Kentucky players scored in double figures, led by guard Otega Oweh with 22 points.

Missouri’s offense struggled mightily in the first half, putting up just 29 points in the first 20 minutes, which tied with the Feb. 8 game against Texas A&M for the lowest scoring home first half of the season.

Even though the Tigers’ defense played better than it has recently, the offensive absence allowed the Wildcats to commandeer the driver’s seat for much of the first half, opening up a double-digit lead with just over a minute left in the first half.

Mitchell went to work down low to help trim the deficit just before halftime, only for Kentucky freshman Collin Chandler to drain a 3 in the final two seconds of the half to undo the power forward’s work.

The Wildcats expanded their lead during the early portions of the second half as MU coach Dennis Gates turned to depth players for some production. He got some.

Warrick — who is from Lexington, Kentucky — cashed in back-to-back 3-pointers to bring Mizzou within single digits, down 66-57 with eight minutes to go. Mitchell made two free throws to cut Kentucky’s lead to seven, then Warrick stole the ball and Euro-stepped his way until a floater made it a five-point game.

Five was as close as MU came to threatening the Wildcats’ margin, though.

Takeaways

• After giving up the first 20 points of Wednesday’s loss at Oklahoma in the paint, the Tigers were much improved on the interior. Kentucky’s first paint points came more than 11 minutes into the game and were the byproduct of an offensive breakdown more than shoddy defending: Oweh stole the ball from Bates in the backcourt to set up a short drive to a dunk.
• After trotting out the same starting lineup for the last 16 games, Gates made a change that was perhaps motivated by those recent interior defensive struggles: swapping forward Trent Pierce for traditional center Josh Gray, whose last start came in the SEC opener at Auburn.
• Missouri honored seven seniors after the game: guard Tamar Bates, guard Caleb Grill, guard Tony Perkins, Warrick, Crews, Gray and walk-on captain Jeremy Sanchez. Crews has remaining eligibility, should he elect to use it, but was part of the Senior Day ceremony in case this was his final career home game.

Key stat

Part of what crystallized the difference between the two offenses was 3-point shooting. Kentucky finished the game 11-of-20 (55%) from beyond the arc while Missouri was only 11 for 28 (37%). A few of MU’s makes came in garbage time, when the comeback seemed out of reach.

Key moment

Student section-favorite “Mr. Brightside” blasted through the arena during a media timeout with just over four minutes to play, riling up the crowd. Out of the stoppage, Grill stole an inbounds pass to set up a pair of Bates free throws, cutting Kentucky’s lead back down to five. But when that rally fizzled, it was visiting Kentucky fans sending a loud “Go Big Blue” chant around the arena just two minutes of game time later.

Up next

Though its seeding won’t be finalized until later Saturday, Missouri will begin SEC Tournament play on Thursday in Nashville, Tennessee. The matchup and game time depend on which seed the Tigers secure.