COLUMBIA, Mo. - Kentucky made it interesting down the stretch but No. 15 Missouri held on to take an 83-78 win and keep pace in the ultra-competitive top half of the Southeastern Conference.
The Tigers (19-5, 7-4 SEC) led by as many as 16 in the second half at Mizzou Arena, but a late spurt from Maci Morris and Taylor Murray cut that lead to single digits for good with under five minutes to play. The Wildcats got as close as three with nine seconds remaining, but Missouri hit 12-of-14 free throws in the final 2:23 to preserve its lead.
LSU lost Thursday at Auburn, which bumped Missouri to sixth in the conference standings, just two games back of second-place Georgia with five regular season games remaining.
Sophie Cunningham scored a game-high 29 points on 10 shots and made 5-of-7 3s despite pulling herself out of the game at the end of the first half to tape her wrist and thumb. Cierra Porter added 16, Jordan Frericks scored 15 and Amber Smith scored 13 to round out four Tigers in double digits.
Cunningham insisted she was fine after the game and called the injury a 'little sprain.'
"I'm proud of our kids," Pingeton said. "Winning in the SEC is tough, and this is a tough team. Found a way to get it done, and I think to have four players in double figures, we're moving in the right direction."
Missouri finished the game with 17 assists and 16 turnovers, and outrebounded Kentucky 31-22.
The Wildcats scored 32 points in the fourth quarter, as many as they scored in the first half. Kentucky shot 40 percent in the first quarter, compared to Missouri's 78.6 percent, but while Missouri's shooting percentage dropped during the game - as it was bound to do - the Wildcats slowly improved to close the gap to 55-50 in favor of the Tigers.
Morris and Murray, two of Kentucky's starting guards, turned in excellent performances for the Wildcats (12-13, 4-7 SEC), and combined for 45 points on 17-of-33 shooting. No other Kentucky player shot the ball more than seven times.
Missouri scored 14 of its 20 points in the paint in the first quarter against Kentucky's 2-3 zone, which Wildcats head coach Matthew Mitchell said Pingeton and the Tigers schemed and prepared for very well. His team's adjustments in the remaining three quarters kept the Tigers out of the paint, but couldn't stop their outside game or trips to the foul line. Missouri shot 10-of-21 from three and 21-of-26 from the stripe.
"They just were on fire. Just had a great night," Mitchell said of Missouri. "You've got to credit kids that come out and knock down shots. I don't know if we could have played any better defense, if we'd have had any influence on them. They were fantastic in the first quarter, ready to play, ready to go."
Kentucky's defensive pressure did work for a six-minute stretch spanning the third and fourth quarters. Missouri made no field goals between a Porter jumper at the 3:30 mark of the third quarter and a Porter jumper with 8:05 remaining in the game. The Wildcats stepped up their defensive physicality in that stretch, fighting hard through every pindown and perimeter screen and denying post-entry passes to make the Tigers work hard. Missouri hit a few jumpers to open the game back up, and then Kentucky ran out of time and was forced to foul, and nearly clawed their way back into the game in the process.
"We're at a point where we can put everything we learned throughout the season together," Frericks said. "It's just taking time to make sure we're efficient in doing that."
Missouri travels Sunday to Fayetteville, Ark., to face the Razorbacks (12-12, 3-8 SEC). Game time is 4 p.m. (SEC Network).
Since the Tigers clobbered them 88-54 three weeks ago at Mizzou Arena, the Razorbacks are 1-3 with losses to No. 9 South Carolina, Kentucky and No. 11 Tennessee (by five points at home Thursday night) and a win against Alabama.