After watching that first half, I have no Earthly idea how we wind up going into the half only down four. Missouri massacred Kentucky on the backboards, Kentucky shot a whopping 39%, and yet somehow they wind up withing a couple of field goals.
Kentucky did not play well at all in this half. All I can say about that is that if they can’t play any better than this, they deserve to lose. It was just a half of pure frustration for me.
Honestly, though, Kentucky did just enough to stay firmly in the game, and I guess, in the end, the only stat that matters is the final score. Kentucky did make a couple of big shots, and despite a horrendous 7-12 at the line, they have not managed to lose the game in the first half, which, at one point, looked likely.
Missouri, frankly, has absolutely no excuse not to be up ten or more. They dominated Kentucky on the glass, got innumerable good looks from everywhere, and mostly made their living off of layups. All I can say about that is that if we can give up that many easy baskets and still be in the game, I guess we have a chance after all.
If everyone will just play basketball, we could be in for a good second half. Right now, we have two guys, Ryan Harrow and Alex Poythress, doing all the scoring and making all the plays on offense, and Willie Cauley-Stein making all the plays on defense. If we could just get a little help from the other guys, who knows?
Go, ’Cats!