Keanau Post was Missouri's lone bright spot leading the team with 10 points and six rebounds in the loss at Kentucky.

Keanau Post was Missouri’s lone bright spot leading the team with 10 points and six rebounds in the loss at Kentucky.

On his weekly SEC teleconference call, Missouri men’s basketball coach Kim Anderson said he had wished that Kentucky didn’t play two overtime games prior to their matchup with John Calipari’s Wildcats on Tuesday night.  He expected UK to be focused and ready to prove why they are the number one team in the country.  He was right.  Missouri was no match for Kentucky, losing 86-39.

The 39 points are the fewest since a 41-36 loss at Oklahoma on Jan. 9, 1950. This 47 point loss by Mizzou was the largest since a 55-point disaster at K-State in 1998.

Kentucky held Missouri to a season low 27% shooting forcing 11 turnovers, eight blocked shots and five steals.  Hard to believe, but I thought Kentucky’s defense was more impressive than their offense.

“Great performance by Kentucky, we didn’t play well,” Tigers coach Kim Anderson said. “I thought they came out and physically controlled us from the start.”

Aaron Harrison hit five, three-pointers for a game high 16 points.  Willie Cauley-Stein added 13 points and Karl-Anthony Towns 12 with 10 rebounds and five blocks as Kentucky shot 48 percent from the field. The Wildcats also outrebounded the Tigers 46-27 including 30 defensive boards.

Playing without Teki Gill-Cesar and getting just a 1 for 13 night from leading scorer Jonathan Williams III only compounded the problems.  Wes Clark and Keanau Post each finished with 10.  The rest of the team combined for 19 points on 7 of 34 shooting or 20.5%.

Mizzou is back home on Saturday to host Tennessee.  Tip off is at 5 p.m.