UK Athletics Photo
Kentucky basketball ended their two-game losing streak on Saturday with an 80-57 victory over South Carolina.
The win pulled them out of their second drought of 2025 and it was in large part due to their surprising efforts on defense.
Kentucky held South Carolina to just 19 points in the first half, which was a season-best for the Wildcats and second-worst performance for the Gamecocks only to their 18 points in the first half against Mississippi State earlier in the year.
Mark Pope’s team followed up a stellar first half of defense with another solid 20 minutes by holding South Carolina to 28 second half points and the 57 total points being the second-lowest total Kentucky had allowed this season.
Though the Gamecocks are far from the nation’s most elite offense, they do average 43% shooting from the field and 33% from behind the arc on the season. However, they shot just 32% from the field and 18% from three-point range on Saturday.
The Wildcats held South Carolina scoreless for several stretches in both halves, forcing either misses or giveaways on consecutive possessions.
For a Kentucky defense that had allowed their opponents to nearly score the last two games, it was rather refreshing to see the Wildcats put the clamps on their opponent.
Defense fueled offense for the Wildcats with their bench being ignited to score nearly half of the team’s 80 points. Brandon Garrison and Koby Brea came alive with a combined 25 of 39 points from the Kentucky bench.
As a team, Kentucky showed a bit of toughness that had been missing as of late and flipped their script by going inside to score 44 points in the paint while making just eight three-pointers.
The return of Lamont Butler didn’t account for much in the “box score” but his presence was certainly felt on defense and his passing helped move the basketball on offense, leading to 19 assists compared to nine turnovers for the Wildcats.
If Kentucky can get backup point guard Kerr Kriisa back in the lineup at some point over the next couple of weeks, they will be able to put a full team together and possibly turn the corner at the right time heading into March Madness.
But even if Kriisa misses extended time, Saturday’s win over South Carolina was clear evidence of how crucial Butler’s presence on the floor is for this Kentucky team.
Pope and the No. 14 Wildcats will return to Rupp Arena on Tuesday when they host the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers.
The game is a rematch of Kentucky’s 78-73 victory back on January 28th in Knoxville. Tuesday night’s game will air on ESPN at 7 PM ET.
4 Responses
I didn’t get to see entire game.. But I saw most of first half for fair context.. Question. Do other basketball teams have as many unforced turnovers as UK? Frustrating to watch..
Not the good teams. We have too many lazy passes and too many missed shots within 5 ft. of the rim, and too many fouls, especially for a home game. Our defense was better, but that many fouls mean guys are still getting by us. Luckily, we were playing the last place team in the league. Passing was better and foul shooting was excellent! We still don’t shoot enough threes…our offense doesn’t seem to be set up for that. We are a 2 point shooting team. It was nice to get the win, but it was South Carolina. Now man up and whoop Tennessee again make a run for a bye in the SEC tourney. Go CATS!!!
It good to see Butler back on the floor, he’s our mainstay when comes to playing defense we have miss that.
Congrats to the Cats!! for the good showing. They played outstanding BB from about 2nd half 10 min mark to about 4 mins left. That 6 min segment showed that we could be back soon. I think we will know Tuesday night. Have to find a way to get Almanour involved.