COLUMBIA, Mo. _ Back in May, after Missouri had signed Michael Porter Jr. and hoops hysteria had arrived here, forward Jontay Porter tweeted that Mizzou's games against Kentucky this season would be "crazy."
He turned out to be right _ but probably not in the way he or anyone else predicted.
Missouri, which had dwindling NCAA Tournament hopes a week ago after losing three straight games, has now won consecutive games over Alabama and the No. 21 Wildcats. Mizzou beat Kentucky, 69-60, on Saturday for the Tigers' first win in program history against the Wildcats.
Just as they have all season, the Tigers did so without Michael Porter Jr. At the time of Jontay Porter's tweet, his big brother was supposed to face off against Kevin Knox, who had taken an official visit to MU before choosing Kentucky. On Saturday, fans booed Knox whenever he touched the ball, and he scored just five points on 2 of 6 shooting.
Kentucky shot just 31.3 percent from the field and made just 2 of 20 3-pointers.
The Wildcats' 18 first-half points were the fewest they had scored in a first half since a November 2008 game against West Virginia. They had not scored fewer in any half since John Calipari became the coach. They shot just 20 percent before halftime, also a season low.
Kentucky missed 13 straight field goals to help Mizzou go on a 10-0 run that ended with a Porter 3. The Tigers closed the half with an 8-0 run to go into halftime up 10 points.
MU coach Cuonzo Martin has said the Tigers need production from the power-forward position to be successful, and on Saturday they received it. Porter scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Kevin Puryear had seven points and five rebounds.
Five of Porter's rebounds came in the first half, and Puryear scored Mizzou's first six points off of two and-one layups.
Puryear made two of the biggest plays in the second half, too.
Midway through the first half, he grabbed offensive rebounds on consecutive possessions. After the first one, he found Jordan Barnett cutting to the basket for a dunk. After the second one, he connected with Kassius Robertson at the top of the key for an open 3-pointer that put Missouri up 49-38.
The lead grew to 14 after that, when Barnett made a step-back jumper through a foul and hit the free throw that followed with about 9 minutes remaining.
After struggling for much of conference play and admitting he failed to be engaged for portions of games, Barnett finished with 16 points, 12 of which came in the second half. His 3 early in the second half finished an 8-0 Missouri run that lasted just 50 seconds and pushed the Wildcats away after they had trimmed Mizzou's lead to 33-32.
Martin's first season at Missouri has been about changing attitudes. He has never wanted his players to settle for already surpassing their win totals for any of the last three seasons, and the Tigers have said they needed to learn how to close out games.
Kentucky had come back from double-digit second-half deficits to win each of its previous two games, and six Missouri turnovers after that Barnett step-back seemed like it might aid in another. The Tigers went more than 6 minutes without a field goal, but the Wildcats could never trim the lead to fewer than five points in the final minutes.
Robertson, who scored 16 points, made six straight free throws in the final 2-plus minutes. The Tigers were 16 of 19 from the free-throw line in the second half.
