UK Athletics Photo
Kentucky gave up 34 points in the paint to Mississippi State and allowed the Bulldogs to score 19 fast break points and 18 points off turnovers.
Yet Mississippi State still lost 71-68 to visiting Kentucky Wednesday night to snap UK’s two-game losing streak.
The main reason was Kentucky’s rebounding. The Wildcats had a 38-22 rebounding advantage that included 18 offensive boards that led to 18 second-chance points, including four for backup guard Adou Thiero in the first half.
“That’s the tale of the tape,” Mississippi State coach Chris Jans about UK’s rebounding advantage. “[Kentucky] is really good at it.
“We talked ad nauseam about it coming into the game. Obviously they were committed to the glass and they were really good.”
Oscar Tshiebwe had seven offensive rebounds for Kentucky and 11 overall. Cason Wallace also had two offensive rebounds, including one late in the game. Chris Livingston’s only offensive rebound came in the final 10 seconds.
“If you take out the rebounding numbers and look at everything else, I would feel pretty good about our chances (if I were looking at])a blind stat sheet or resume,” Jans said after his team’s five-game win streak ended. “I’d think, ‘Oh, we probably won.’ But obviously (The rebounding) was too much to overcome.”
Kentucky coach John Calipari knew how special getting 18 offensive boards against State was.
“Mississippi State, what they’ve done in this winning streak and what they’ve done to good teams, they’ve dominated offensive rebounds. They’ve out-hustled, been tougher and turned people over,” Calipari said.
“We had one guy (Cason Wallace) go 1-for-13, and we won the game. He had 11 assists though. He defended and the biggest rebounds, Cason came up with. Oscar is beginning to be himself, not quite there yet.
“They had a small man on Chris [Livingston]. So, we posted him up four or five straight times. It’s stuff that we have. So, we didn’t have to do something new. We just wanted to get him the ball on the cuts.”
3 Responses
No question that last night’s win was a big win for this team, and one that they played quite well for almost all of the game. They closed both halves weakly and allowed MSU to stay in contention at the end.
This was the strongest ANE game since Vanderbilt, but the level of this performance, while an improvement over the last 5 games, was still insufficient to change the outlook significantly for the end of this season.
Two things happened last night that I don’t recall. One probably provided the final difference, and the other nearly erased the advantage of the first.
1) UK had one trip (possession) that produced 6 points with a basket and 1. Offensive rebound on a free throw, and another foul. made first and missed, but offensive rebound on miss, and another foul. Made first and missed, but another offensive rebound ended this possession with a final basket by Oscar.
That 6 point possession extended UK’s lead to a very strong, and impressive 13 points. Then the ending came.
2) With UK up 4 points with 8 seconds left, Reeves quickly fouled a MSU player to stop the clock and allow them to cut the lead to 3 points (he missed one of the free throws) but 1 possession game with virtually no time used from the 8 seconds. At that point, the clock was UK’s friend, and stopping the clock with a 2-possession lead was not wise.
How does a player with Reeves’s experience not understand this? Was he directed by the bench to foul? That was not clear from my viewing, and I sure hope some astute reporter on this beat asked Calipari that question.
Looked like there was incidental contact on that foul. Several plays during the game with more contact was not called. That one probably wouldn’t have been called if there was more time on the clock.
Thanks Larry for clarifying that. I missed it on TV and must have glanced away. I was relying on Tom Leach’s description of that play.
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