Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky was without starting point guard Lamont Butler due to a shoulder injury and starting power forward Andrew Carr tried to play but lasted only 90 seconds due to his back injury.
Kentucky got outscored 20-8 in second chance points after giving up 18 offensive boards and outscored 15-5 in points off turnovers. Tennessee got 22 more shots.
Kentucky’s last field goal came with 5 minutes, 20 seconds to play and the Cats managed just seven points in the final 5:20.
Yet Kentucky still went on the road and won 78-73 at No. 6 Tennessee Tuesday in what might be the most impressive win of the coach Mark Pope era.
“I have to study this stat sheet to figure out how they did that,” said UK Radio Network analyst Jack Givens. “That was just a gut check win.”:
It certainly was considering UK had lost its two previous games and will host Arkansas and coach John Calipari on Saturday.
Kentucky did not have a star of the game. Instead, it had a team of stars:
— Jaxson Robinson moved to point guard and went 4-for-9 from 3-point range and finished with 17 points, four rebounds, one block and one assist in 34 minutes. His defense on Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler was also big as Ziegler went 5-for-18 from the field before fouling out with 13 points.
— Koby Brea was near perfect. He was 5-for-5 overall from the field and 3-for-3 from three. He went 5-for-7 at the foul line and finished with a team-high 18 points, three rebounds, three assists and one block in 31 minutes.
— Amari Williams was a man’s man with 15 rebounds, 10 points and four assists in 24 minutes. He handled a lot of the ball handling for UK to initiate the offense with Butler out.
— Otega Oweh hit four straight free throws late to put the game away and continued his streak of scoring in double figures every game. He finished with 14 points, six rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal.
— Ansley Almonor did what he had to do — he went 4-for-7 from 3-point range and had 12 points in 30 minutes. He also had three assists and two rebounds.
Also don’t overlook the spark from reserve Trent Noah who buried a 3-pointer in the second half and also picked up a loose ball rebound to score. He had his five points in nine needed minutes.
ESPN analyst Jimmy Dykes thought Kentucky had its best defensive game. Tennessee shot only 34.7 percent (25 of 72 from the field) and went 11-for-45 from 3. The Vols for some reason just kept firing away from outside and were off the whole game.
“Kentucky has not been elite on defense but they recovered to shooters well tonight,” Dykes said. “With the exception of giving up some offensive rebounds on the last few possessions, it was one of Kentucky’s better defensive efforts.”
Brea called it a “super big” win on the UK Radio Network postgame show with Givens.
“You come into someone’s home and take a win from them,” Brea said. “We know they are a physical team but we stayed true to ourselves. We kept our heads up. We were coming off two losses but we kept fighting. That is what Kentucky is about.”
That’s what Kentucky fans want to hear and needed to hear. In losses to Alabama and Vanderbilt, UK’s effort had been questionable at times. But not in this game where the Cats jumped on top early and relied on defense late to secure the win.
“We got people not able to play but when you put that Kentucky jersey on it means something,” Brea said. “Guys are willing to play through pain. That’s what we have on this team.”
6 Responses
What a game! What a win! This was our best game of the season. Who would have thought it possible, but some things happened that made it possible. Butler did not play, as a result we played more Pope ball and not so much hero ball with the exception of Oweh. By playing more Pope ball both Jackson and Brea had strong games. Carr only played 1 minute, as a result Almonor got major minutes and made 5 threes. Carr can make threes but he doesn’t trust his shot yet. Carr needs to be shooting 200 threes every practice to dial in his shot and build up his confidence in taking it. Almonor still needs to rebound better and has the body to do so. Williams had a great game. Noah had a great game and needs to play more minutes. His 5 points came at crucial times and kept us in the game. Chandler played pretty good defense and we needed his minutes as Perry still has work to do on the defensive end. Oweh plays hero ball, but always delivers. We can’t have 2 or more players playing hero ball though; it kills the flow of the offense and Robinson and Brea pay the price for it. When Carr comes back, he needs to come back shooting 3s. When Butler comes back, he needs to be a pass first guard…that sets the tone for the entire game. Everybody gets involved and he will get his points…maybe not enough to impress the NBA scouts but enough for us to win. Perry needs to work on his conditioning…when he tires that makes him a step slow. He also needs to take his shots when they come. He passes first, but too often he passes up a good shot. Mark Pope got them ready to play and pushed all of the right buttons during the game. Nothing sucks like a big orange and it sure was nice to watch us make orange juice in Knoxville. Now let’s give Arkansas a good asswhooping as a tuneup to go win in Oxford. This was our best win, but we can still be better if we play as a team. We still only took 24 threes and got killed on second chance points. Our turnovers and mediocre foul shooting almost cost us the game…we are better than that! We will need to be better if we want to make some noise at tourney time. Go CATS!!!
That was our best defensive the cats play this year. They took the vols out of synic on there offensive side. Good to see Noah,Chandler and Perry play a part of it.
I have to say this crow I’m eating never tasted so good. Unbelievable win! If the Cats could stop the turnovers, hit a better % on free-throws, and team rebound, they would be a hard out. 50% on 3’s is the best shooting in a while. The Vols were 11/45 on 3’s. More isn’t always better. The Cats need to get on a 6 game win streak. It takes 6 to win a Championship! Go Cats!
True team victory. Every player who played contributed something to the winning effort.
TG the basketball Gods were looking out for us last night. What a super, super W. Just think what we could do if we found some inside offense. Five players in double figures will guarantee a lot of wins. Hats off to Kolby for finally stringing one together. I now feel a lot better rolling into Saturday.
Our inside offense was on top of the key playing point center and bringing the ball up the floor.