Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky honored one of its best teams and ended a two-game winning streak with a 92-68 triumph over Mississippi State on Saturday night.
The school celebrated the 60th anniversary of the 1965-66 Rupp’s Runts squad that went 27-2 and lost to Texas Western (UTEP) in the NCAA title game in 1966. The returnees included Thad Jaracz, Louie Dampier and Pat Riley, the major players on late Hall of Fame coach Adolph Rupp’s last appearance in the national championship game.
Reminiscent of Rupp’s Runts, the Wildcats (10-5, 1-2 Southeastern Conference) rallied and recovered from a slow start to hold off the Bulldogs after falling behind by 12 six minutes into the contest.
Despite the deficit and point guard Jaland Lowe on the bench after re-aggravating his shoulder at the 17:13 mark of the first half, the Wildcats recovered and used a 14-2 run to erase the deficit and led 44-39 at the break. The Wildcats stretched the margin to double digits in the second half to rebound from an 0-2 start in conference play.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope was pleased with his team’s ability to respond from an early deficit on a night reserved to honor one of the best teams Rupp produced during his storied coaching career.
“It was so fun to have them here (and) really special to our guys,” Pope said. “All of our players got to meet with those guys (Saturday) at shootaround. Those legends walk through the show, so that was fun, and I’m proud of our guys’ effort. I thought they responded well when the game didn’t go our way early, and we’re excited to keep moving forward.”
Kentucky guard and preseason SEC Player of the Year Otega Oweh continued his impressive streak against conference foes and finished with 22 points, complete with five assists and five steals. Oweh has scored 64 points in the first three SEC encounters and is averaging 21.3 points per game against conference foes.
The Wildcats were without Jayden Quaintance but Malachi Moreno picked up the slack in his return to the starting lineup. Moreno finished with 17 points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Oweh and Moreno led four players in double figures for the Wildcats. Denzel Aberdeen added 16 points, followed by Kam Williams with 14. Oweh, Aberdeen and Williams each hit two 3-pointers for Kentucky, which connected on nine treys.
“I thought this was a special night for Malachi,” Pope said. “I thought this was his best performance all season by far, and it was a time where we really needed him to be great, and he knew that the team needed him to be great, and I think he’s getting more and more comfortable.”
Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said Moreno was the difference in the game.
“He’s a tough match because he’s so big and he’s got great touch, and he gets it two feet in the paint. It’s tough to guard him down there,” he said. “We were in and out of trying to double him or not, and when we didn’t, he just seemed to kind of back down and get to where he wanted to get and shot the ball over us.”
The performance Moreno said, was memorable, especially in front of Riley and the rest of Rupp’s Runts.
“He’s one of the ones that really set the foundation here,” Moreno said. “Being able to have that kind of performance, that kind of team performance, in front of them, I mean, it means a lot to us.”
Kentucky forced 15 turnovers and scored 27 points off those miscues. Led by Oweh, the Wildcats collected 14 steals, the team’s most against a conference foe since the 2008-09 season. On the offensive side of the ball, Kentucky had a season-high 21 assists.
“We’re making some progress understanding each other a little bit,” Pope said. “I thought our guys’ attention to the scout, and the build of the scout was really good. I think that’s, I think that’s a positive. … the guys were excellent, doing that for 34 minutes, and we need to carry that on. It’s fun to play the game that way, and it’s something where we’re going to learn and grab onto and it’ll make us a better team.”
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GAMETRACKER: Kentucky at LSU, 7 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: SECN, UK Radio Network.
