LEXINGTON — Kentucky opened up its SEC schedule with a 71-59 victory Saturday over Missouri at Rupp Arena.
Nick Richards and Immanuel Quickley set the pace for the Wildcats, who improve to 10-3 on the season.
Richards finished the game with 21 points while adding 12 rebounds and 4 blocks to the stat sheet.
Quickley scored 21 points, shooting 4-8 from beyond the arc. The rest of the team shot 0-6 from deep.
Kentucky will now hit the road for its second SEC matchup when they travel to Athens to take on Georgia.
Tip-off is scheduled for 9 p.m. on Tuesday, January 7th.
1st half summary
As expected, the game was pretty sluggish for the first few minutes as both teams started the game a combined 3-11 from the field. Missouri built up a 7-2 run.
Nick Richards was a one-man show for the Wildcats. He scored the team's first 9 points. Tyrese Maxey was the second player to score with 10 minutes to go in the half.
Kentucky took its first lead of the game when Immanuel Quickley hit a 3 to give the Cats a 19-17 lead. Quickley had 6 points in the first half and was 2-3 from downtown.
Richards continued his dominance throughout the opening half, finishing with 17 points (7-10 FG), 8 rebounds and 3 blocks in the first 20 minutes of regulation.
Kentucky led 31-26 at halftime
