Otega Oweh needed to be smiling after the game he had. (UK Athletics Photo)
By LARRY VAUGHT
It’s a shot that Kentucky basketball fans are going to remember for a long, long time.
It was also a shot that Kentucky basketball desperately needed to bolster its SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament resume.
Otega Oweh took over the game for Kentucky in the second half at Oklahoma and scored on a fabulous shot in the lane with about six seconds to play to give UK an 83-82 win that was finalized by a block by teammate Brandon Garrison just before the final buzzer.
Oweh, who played two years at Oklahoma, finished with a career-high 28 points on 12-for-21 shooting from the field — he was 10 for 14 in the second half when he scored 23 points. He also had six rebounds, one block, and one steal. He scored 18 straight points to end the game for UK.
“When you talk about clutch individual performances, that has got to be at the top,” said SEC Network studio analyst Dane Bradshaw. “His decision making to continue to attack and that was the most creative last second shot I have ever seen. The kid was unbelievable.”
Everyone had to know Oweh was going to take the last shot, but it didn’t matter. He likes to go right but had to go left before taking a big Euro step, spinning to his right and somehow making an off-balance shot as he was falling to the floor.
Another SEC analyst, Pat Bradley, could not stop praising Oweh.
“He used what the good Lord gave him. That was maybe the most acrobatic last-second shot I have ever seen,” Bradley said. “He hit one of the most difficult shots you can make. He put on some performance.”
Kentucky needed it all, even with injured starters Jaxson Robinson and Lamont Butler finally cleared to play again. However, Robinson lasted only 12 minutes before apparently injuring his wrist again. He went 3-for-7 from the field and had seven points. Butler played 20 minutes but fouled out with over four minutes to play on a questionable blocking call. He was 1-for-2 from the field and had seven points, six assists, and four rebounds.
Otega Oweh scored the game-winning basket on this off-balance shot Wednesday. (UK Athletics Photo)
Oweh had his double-figure scoring streak snapped in UK’s loss at Alabama Saturday and was just 2-for-7 from the field with five points in the first half.
“I just wanted to start playing with more intensity. The first half I was letting the game come to me and play out. I wanted to be aggressive in the second half and leave my imprint on offense and defense,” Oweh said on the SEC Network.
He did admit “it felt great” to beat his former team, but he tried to take the emotion out of it because winning was what mattered.
But where does this performance rank on his all-time best games?
“It is one of the ones for sure,” Oweh said. “It is definitely up there. I am just glad we got the win.”
He said the Cats continue to fight through adversity.
“We just got heart. When they (Butler and Robinson) were out, a lot of guys had to grow into roles earlier than they were supposed to,” Oweh said.
Butler admitted on the UK Radio Network postgame show that it was nice to be “out there with my guys” and said he had no pain in his shoulder.
“We had a great effort by everyone to get the win,” Butler said
He knew Oweh missed a couple of easy shots in the first half that frustrated him.
“The second half, I tried to get him going with easy shots, and it don’t take much to get him scoring, and then he just took over the game,” Butler said.
19 Responses
Oweh scored 21 of Ky’s last 23 points. Thanks to Oweh’s Hero Ball the Cats pulled out a needed win. Ky will need multiple Hero Ball performances Saturday to even stay close to Auburn.
Mark it down Jimmy, I will say it first the cats will pull it off against Auburn Saturday. Go cats!!
Cats79….what kind of meds are you on? We don’t stand a chance on Saturday. Tigers a well oiled machine who have stayed consistent and improved over the year, and we continue to wallow in inconsistency. We are not where we should be this time of the year. We know Pitino has his boys ready for the playoffs and Califraudi may even have his team further along than we do.
Mike, got to be positive and you can’t dwell what the other team has done. Anybody can beat anybody on any given night. It has been proven through out the season.
Especially when we have Big Play Oweh
Unbelievable win! The Butler/Robinson experiment gave us 14 points and we needed every one of them. Butler will play against Auburn, Robinson needs to sit until the SEC tourney. Kudos to Garrison, the only player other than Oweh to reach double digit scoring. The rest of the team needs to do a checkup from the neck up, they just didn’t seem to be engaged in the game last night. That kind of team effort will not beat Auburn on Saturday.
I was glad to see Oweh have his biggest game of the year at Oklahoma. We needed the win and he wanted the satisfaction of proving he was right to become a Wildcat. We will need bigger games from Carr and Williams; 3 shot attempts and 3 rebounds each is not going to cut it. Brea had an off shooting night, but at least he kept shooting. He did have 7 boards, 3 assists, a steal and only 1 turnover. Almonor and Noah were no shows and we can’t have that on Saturday.
Beating Auburn will be a tough assignment, but that is our DNA this year. We beat the better teams and lose to the lesser ones. Having Butler back will help, but the rest of the team can’t sit back and expect another Superman performance from Oweh. If we win our last 3 games and get a little help from some other teams, we could still get a double bye in the SEC tourney or at least not have to play on Wednesday. I would hold out Robinson until the Big Dance. Wrist injuries are slow to heal. I would rather take our chances without him the rest of the way and possibly get a couple of big games from him toward the end of March. Go CATS!!!
I wouldn’t mind seeing the Cats lose in the first game in the SEC tourney.
Rather than get into 2 extra wrestling matches we’d have time to further heal and practice with guys coming off the ER. Wouldn’t effect our seeding much anyway.
Agree 100%
That statement wouldn’t have been said if Cal was still here and certainly no one would have 100% agreed with it.
Losing in the SEC tournament wasn’t beneficial with the FRAUD because he didn’t win in the NCAA tournament either.
Ky doesn’t want to play the "Fraud" again because the result will be the same as last time. Pope has Zero wins in the NCAA Tournament. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
Calipari had 32 NCAA Tournament wins at Kentucky! Four Final Fours! Seven Elite Eights and a Championship! I call that WINNING in the NCAA Tournament!!
Did anyone other that Oweh really want to see this team win? Garrison did play well during that middle spurt ability but a little quiet before and after. Consistency continues to be a problem for these Cats. We only play good in spurts. We have trouble building a lead and then when we do we can’t built or protect it.
I was hoping the “ Mountain Mamba “ would be more like the Great James Lee. They both are 6’5” and Lee was only 10 pounds heavier at 230. With a name like “ Mountain Mamba “ he should be fighting more inside like James Lee did instead of thinking 3 Point shooting and standing outside! Trent needs to Watch the replays of the 1978 team, James was the sixth man on that Championship Team! There was no one that would take a charge on James when he went to the basket! James would give an awesome lift to a tired team when he came up off the bench because of His Fight! James Lee will always be Loved and Respected by Old Guys like me of Big Blue Nation!
James Lee was built like Owea – only bigger.
James Lee was 6’5” Trent is 6’5” Trent is 220 lb James was 230 lb. James might have been build different but Larry Bird wasn’t muscled up. It’s the Fight in the Dog and in the Players Head!! We get beat on rebounding because there’s no fight to go get them! That’s our biggest Weakness! It’s just like the comment made by Barry Pritchett that The rest of the team needs to do a checkup from the neck up, they just didn’t seem to be engaged in the game last night like in a lot of the 9 Losses! That kind of team effort will not beat Auburn on Saturday and inconsistency is this team’s signature!! This will keep we from going deep in the Tournament.
Arkansas became a better team when Boogie Fland got injured.
We might become a better team with Robinson out and Carr limited.
Having Garrison ans Williams on the floor at the same time was a good thing at the end of last night’s game.
I agree with the statement here. Robinson and Carr both seem to be a little on the fragile side with injury separation, but that is easy to say when it hasn’t happened to us. Carr has been saying his back situation is improved but he play doesn’t support that. He is not strong enough to finish at the rim. I am also still wondering why Robinson couldn’t be fitted with some flexible type of risk support. Carr and Edwards both picking up 2 fouls within first 4 mins. not smart BB either.
With this our team healthy minus Kerr who will redshirt it would be stupid to play him now because he’s still not ready. He will start at the PG position next year with Oweh at the 2 Johnson at the 3 Garrison at the 4 he has improved on his outside shooting and Moreno down low. That’s going to be a great and athletic starting 5. Now let me make a prediction. If we can get full strength for the NCAA tournament we can make a run at a final 4. If we keep playing Robinson and Butler they will keep getting hurt and maybe miss the tournament. We are in the tournament I wouldn’t play them again until they are 100% even if we lose. It gives the backups experience while there out and winning these regular season games or conference tournament games don’t really matter any more. We are definitely in the tournament. If we want a chance to make a run we need to be 100%. If they aren’t 100% or at least 90% don’t play them. Just shoot a ton of 3s and if we are hitting we could still beat anybody but I might play Butler against Auburn but I definitely wouldn’t play Robinson. He needs a week or 2 rest on his wrist. If Butler isn’t 100% against Auburn don’t play him and save these 2 for the NCAA tournament were the games really matter!