Kentucky ran out of miracles.
After overcoming double-digit deficits in the second half at West Virginia and then at home against Vanderbilt, Kentucky could not do it again Saturday at Missouri.
The Wildcats scored only 18 points in the first half and eventually lost 67-60 because they shot just 31 percent (21 of 67) from the field. Kentucky missed its first 13 3-point shots before Wenyen Gabriel hit one with 2:51 to play. Kentucky finished 2-for-20 from 3-point range to drop to 17-6 overall and 6-4 in SEC play.
Kentucky has now gone 1,036 consecutive games with a 3-pointer made. Kentucky’s last game without a made 3-pointer was against Seton Hall on Nov. 26, 1988.
The Cats cut the 10-point halftime deficit to one point in about four minutes in the second half but then Missouri ran off eight straight points. Kentucky was never closer than five points the rest of the way.
“You can’t wait to be down to play this way. This one should sting.” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.
Kentucky missed 13 of 14 shots during one stretch in the first half and then missed its last eight shots in the half. The Cats had two more major scoring droughts in the second half.
“It was definitely shocking to us. It’s hard for us to win a game if you can’t make a shot,” Kentucky sophomore Wenyen Gabriel, who had eight points but only one rebound, said on the UK Radio Network after the game. We kind of beat ourselves today. Our shooting obviously was not good but our energy was there, either.”
The energy was not. Kentucky had too many players make unwise decision and going one-on-one too often.
Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 15 points and six assists. However, he took 16 shots. Point guard Quade Green was 2-for-11 from the field. Together they were a combined 7-for-27 from the field. Green did not have an assist.
“Shai had six assists but he had four or five other plays he could have passed to other guys. Quade the same thing,” Calipari said. “We need Shai to do some of the stuff he is doing but he took 16 shots. He needs to take about 10. The two point guards took 27 shots.
“All of them. I don’t have the answer right now. You have to create shots for each other. The game is too hard.”
Calipari said players “literally did the opposite” from what they were told at timeouts about who to foul or not to foul way too often.
“That’s what young guys do. They are into themselves and we have to get through this,” Calipari said. “We had some teammates getting on guys, trying to get them to do the right things.”
No one for Kentucky had a game to remember:
— Hamidou Diallo was 3-for-8 from the field and had 8 points, 3 rebounds and no assists in 22 minutes.
— Nick Richards had 3 points and 2 rebounds and played just 10 minutes.
— Kevin Knox was 2-for-6 from the field and had three rebounds and two turnovers in 25 minutes.
— P.J. Washington went 2-for-8 from the field and scored 4 points. He did have 7 rebounds in 30 minutes.
Jarred Vanderbilt had 10 rebounds, 8 points, 1 block and one steal in 16 minutes. He also got called for two technical fouls and was just 1-for-5 from the field.
“I have done this a long time but not with a team this young,” an obviously frustrated Calipari said. “Each player is trying to establish who they are but it takes time. I was disappointed with a bunch of guys today.
“We just don’t pass the ball. Everybody is trying to look for theirs. There is no extra pass, no quick pass. We are not getting it right now. The last two games we just are not passing to each other and that makes it hard.”
It was perhaps the ugliest offensive half of the Calipari era to start the game. Kentucky was 6-for-30 from the field and missed all 10 3-point attempts. Kentucky missed 13 of 14 shots in one spell and later missed eight straight shots to end the half when Missouri opened a 28-18 halftime lead. Kentucky went 5 minutes, 55 seconds to end the half WITHOUT A POINT.
The Cats also got frustrated as Vanderbilt was called for both a technical foul and flagrant technical foul on the same play after a rebounding scrum.
In the first half, Knox, Diallo, Gilgeous-Alexander, Washington and Green were a combined 2-for-19 from the field.
“When you shoot 31 percent home or away, you have got to be playing a pretty poor team to win,” UK Radio Network analyst Mike Pratt said after the game. “Missouri has some pretty good notches (wins) in its belt and this was a big one for them to make the NCAA.”
Missouri’s only home losses this year are to SEC leader Auburn and Florida. They beat Kentucky despite make ing 20 turnovers, getting outrebounded 40-36 and missing 14 of 23 field goal attempts in the first half.
However, the Tigers blocked eight shots and did not allow UK a single fast break point. Kentucky also got just 11 second-chance points off 20 offensive rebounds.
(STORY BY LARRY VAUGHT/PHOTOS BY VICKY GRAFF)
