No. 4 Kentucky beats Missouri 66-58 on Derrick Chievous night, Jordan Geist scores 11

Hangovers after big upsets don’t exist for John Calipari and Kentucky.

A few days removed from beating No. 1 Tennessee, the No. 4 Wildcats beat Missouri 66-58 for the Tigers’ second straight loss. It’s the first time this season that Missouri (12-13, 3-10 SEC) has a losing record.

Walk-on Ronnie Suggs led MU with 13 points in the Tigers’ loss and was the one of the few highlights during an evening that saw the retirement of career leading scorer Derrick Chievous’s No. 3 jersey, which is also worn by Suggs. The performance by Suggs was a career-high in points at MU since he transferred from Bradley. Jordan Geist added 11 points.

Suggs will have to change numbers at the end of the season and was recently put on scholarship for the remainder of the year.

Kentucky sophomore PJ Washington and freshman Tyler Hero led the Wildcats (22-4, 11-2 SEC) with 18 points apiece, while freshman Ashton Hagans added 12.

Missouri was able to stay within striking distance of Kentucky in the opening minutes, largely thanks to the officials and a four-minute scoring drought by the Wildcats. There were 17 fouls in the first 17 minutes, which made it hard for the game to develop any sort of pace.

A floater by Mitchell Smith gave MU a brief 11-10 lead during UK’s scoring drought, which PJ Washington ended the following play with an alley-oop. UK went on a 9-0 run and never looked back. Smith later left the game after taking an elbow to the head by EJ Montgomery. MU coach Cuonzo Martin said after the game that Smith was fine.

Kevin Puryear and Jeremiah Tilmon both had foul trouble in the first half, which is when MU started to let the game slip away. Martin later put Puryear back in with two fouls but kept Tilmon on the bench, despite letting him play with two fouls at Ole Miss on Saturday. Martin said after the game that he took Tilmon out because Kentucky’s frontcourt was too physical to risk Tilmon picking up another foul.

Kentucky had some foul trouble of its own, with center Reid Travis picking up his second foul with 8:11 left in the first half. Travis picked up his third shortly after halftime and heard it from Calipari once he took his place on the bench. The Wildcats had plenty of firepower without Travis to head into halftime with a 41-23 lead after Nick Richards dunked over a pair of Tigers with 6 seconds left.

Martin said he called his team out at halftime and thought it was the first time all season that he thought they weren’t playing hard.

Missouri even went to a four-guard lineup for most of the second half, which Martin normally opposes, because more players that fit that rotation seemed invested than the Tigers’ usual lineups.

“Good or bad I try to go with guys, give them the best chance possible, sometimes when you’re an older guy, been in the program, given every opportunity, but at some point you have to do what’s best for the program,” Martin said. “Javon (Pickett) is tough as they come. Ronnie is the same way.”

Missouri came out of halftime by scoring five consecutive points, prompting Calipari to call timeout, but the Wildcats had the lead back up to 20 points a few minutes later.

“I told the team at halftime, they’re gonna be playing with house money,” Calipari said. “They’re gonna make some shots and they’re gonna make two or three runs at you. Just understand that’s what’s going to happen.”

Sophomore guard Mark Smith played for the second consecutive game after missing the previous six because of a left ankle sprain. Smith played 21 minutes after playing just 14 minutes at Ole Miss. Smith went scoreless and Martin said his ankle is still hurting his jump shot, but applauded Smith for playing “with two inches of tape on his ankle” and for trying to help his team win despite being injured.

In the second half, Missouri got the deficit down to as little as 13 but struggled to get much closer. Kentucky’s loaded lineup of McDonald’s All-Americans had an answer every time MU hit a basket.

Torrence Watson drilled a three with 2:38 left that cut the UK lead to 10. Watson added another with 13 seconds left that cut it to six, but at that point, the game was already out of reach.

In the loss, Missouri outrebounded Kentucky 34-28 and shot 33.3 percent from three. Calipari was frustrated with the Cats’ performance on the boards, given that they’re one of the better rebounding teams nationally and had Tilmon in foul trouble, which should have been an advantage.

Because of icy conditions, Calipari said that for the first time in 19 years as a head coach, Kentucky had to spend the night in Columbia instead of traveling home.

“Every time we come here there’s a snowstorm, ice storm, rain storm,” Calipari said. “I don’t know if we’re right outside of Anchorage.”

Missouri’s next game is at Florida on Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 3 p.m. on ESPNU.

This story was originally published February 19, 2019 at 10:25 PM.