Missouri women's basketball to host Kentucky

Missouri's Sophie Cunningham and coach Robin Pingeton speak during a game against Mississippi State at Mizzou Arena.
Missouri's Sophie Cunningham and coach Robin Pingeton speak during a game against Mississippi State at Mizzou Arena.

COLUMBIA - In the Southeastern women's basketball standings, not much separates Missouri from Kentucky.

Just Alabama, to be specific.

The No. 15 Tigers (18-5, 6-4 SEC) tip off at 8 p.m. (SEC Network) against the Wildcats (12-12, 4-6 SEC) at Mizzou Arena. Missouri is seventh in the conference, Kentucky is ninth.

The Tigers are 2-2 all-time against Kentucky at home, and Matthew Mitchell has his teams undefeated at home against Missouri. The Wildcats are led by Maci Morris's 15 points per conference game, and she and Makenzie Cann, who averages 5.6 points per game, are the team's volume shooters from deep.

Taylor Murray is second in scoring for the Wildcats at 13.2 points per game. Alyssa Rice is the team's main presence inside, though Kentucky has struggled to get her touches in some of its losses this season.

Robin Pingeton is fond of building up the talent level of the entire SEC, and while the top is considerably better than the bottom, she has a point: Florida came to Mizzou Arena Monday and nearly stole one from the Tigers. That team-by-team parity is a threat every night.

Kentucky is one of those teams. The Wildcats are inconsistent, and have twice this season scored 100 or more points and fewer than 50 points, but they shoot 3s at the fourth-best rate in the SEC at 36 percent and lost to Texas A&M and LSU, both teams above Missouri in the standings, by a combined six points.

"I want to be careful that we understand it wasn't going to get any easier after that," Pingeton said, referring to Missouri's stretch at Georgia and South Carolina and at home against undefeated Mississippi State. "There's a lot of talk about what a tough stretch that was. Well, every night in the SEC is tough."

The Tigers still haven't played to their potential, according to Pingeton. They're still in search of that game where all five starters get going offensively.

The closest Missouri's come this season was against Kansas State, which saw Cierra Porter, Jordan Frericks, Amber Smith and Lauren Aldridge finish in double figures but Sophie Cunningham with one, and Arkansas, in which Cunningham had 22, Aldridge had 13, Kayla Michael scored 13 in the place of a sick Porter, and Frericks and Jordan Chavis added 12 each.

Missouri has meshed its defensive and offensive performances successfully for most of the season. The Tigers can blow teams out, but they're skilled enough to get theirs on offense and then hold teams at arms reach by 15-25 as they close out the game, with a few notable exceptions. With designs on an SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament run this year, as well as hosting the first two rounds of games, Pingeton is convinced the best to come is still to come.