Collin Chandler went 5-for-9 from the field and had 13 points in UK’s win. (UK Athletics Photo)
Kentucky defeated a former coach for the second time this season, picking up a badly needed victory on the road.
Coming off an embarrassing 80-55 loss at Vanderbilt, Kentucky handed former coach John Calipari and No. 15 Arkansas an 85-77 loss, ending the Razorbacks’ three-game winning streak and a 16-game home win streak. The Wildcats defeated Rick Pitino and St. John’s 78-66 on Dec. 20 in the CBS Sports Classic and improved to 15-5 overall in games played against former coaches.
Wildcats coach Mark Pope said his team’s response to a restart in practice this week led to the impressive victory.
“The last couple of days, we asked them to approach practice a little differently, and every team’s different,” said Pope, who improved to 9-1 in bounce-back games at Kentucky. “I’ve never had a team that needed some of the things that this team needs, and I’ve never had a team that maybe can do some of the things that this team has.
“We were trying things that we’ve actually never done before, and I thought our guys responded. They really tried to get a few minutes in each practice. There’s a good chance that helped us feel right earlier in this game. We’ll see what kind of staying power it has. I was really proud of the guys for giving a great effort the last several days to try to address some of our issues.”
Kentucky (15-7, 6-3 Southeastern Conference) overcame four technical fouls, including three in a span of 38 seconds in the second half, which led to an 11-2 Arkansas run and gave the hosts a 57-53 lead with 12 minutes remaining.
Kentucky recovered and regained the lead after an Arkansas technical foul on Malique Ewin sparked a 7-0 run, giving the Wildcats a 70-63 lead with seven minutes remaining.
A basket by Collin Chandler as the shot clock expired with 1:14 left gave the Wildcats an eight-point advantage and the spacing needed to hold off the Hogs down the stretch.
Otega Oweh led the Wildcats with 24 points and missed just three shots in 12 attempts from the floor. Oweh added eight rebounds and three assists, Chandler added 13 points, followed by Malachi Moreno with 11 points and two clutch blocked shots. Denzel Aberdeen rounded out four players in double figures with 10 points. Moreno was scoreless in the opening half but tallied his final tally during the second half.
Oweh said the win was “definitely personal” after the Razorbacks dealt the Wildcats an 89-79 setback last season at Rupp Arena. Oweh was also happy the Wildcats rebounded from the loss at Vanderbilt.
“We were just eager to get back out there, and it just so happened that we were playing Arkansas and the former coach of Kentucky, but it was definitely personal for us just to come out here and clean it up and set the tone,” Oweh said on the SEC Network.
Trent Noah just missed double figures with nine points and seven rebounds off the bench. Noah sank a clutch 3-pointer in the first half and hit some big free throws down the stretch.
“It was a beautiful team win — It’s always good to get one on the road and in an environment like this,” Noah said on the postgame radio show.” It just kind of showed how resilient our group is, and I’m super, super happy to go to war with them every single night.”
Unlike the team’s performance in Nashville earlier this week, the Wildcats had just seven turnovers and outrebounded Arkansas 35-26. They also limited the Razorbacks to just two points in transition. Kentucky had six blocked shots, including three by Mo Dioubate.
Kentucky, which had struggled in the first half and made just one field goal in its first 12 field goal attempts against the Commodores, connected on 11 of its first 13 shots and led 26-13 eight minutes into the contest.
Darius Acuff led Arkansas (16-6, 6-3) with 22 points. Trevon Brazile had 16 points, followed by Billy Richmond with 14, Ewin with 11, and Meleek Thomas with 10.
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Gametracker: Oklahoma at Kentucky, 9 p.m., Wednesday. TV/Radio: ESPN2, UK Radio Network.
9 Responses
We can play like that every night…if we choose to do so.
Did hear the comments made post game included a couple that said Cal threw the game to keep Pope's job……He was looking at the big picture!
You mean like how Pope threw the game last year to save Calipari's job?
Turnabout is fair?
I would not doubt anything now that we are paying kids to play. There is too much money being generated by college sports for it not to be mobbed up.
This whole landscape really pisses me off. How can we be so stupid to allow this to happen? It has definitely ruined college sports and can only deteriorate from here.
Mr Barry I always enjoy Your comments mainly because You are always spot on the subject! One thing I saw last night when I switched to the NBA game that had the Kentucky Kid Shai Alexander that was the MVP last year. It was the Commercials about BETTING ON THE GAMES !!!!!
Not only are the kids getting unbelievable amounts of money but it’s all about GAMBLING on All of the games. I could care a flip about the “Over and Under” spread that’s on all the sports networks now!! CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN you look at their wed sites and it’s all about GAMBLING! $5 bucks off your next bet and BS like that! It’s another sign of how bad this country has become! Something that we enjoy so much and almost hold sacred our College Sports is being destroyed by the big media money and it’s only going to get worse. It breaks my heart.
Blame all of the sports rabid fans that wanted to see every game. CBS, ABC, and ESPN were all to happy to oblige us…for a price.
That So called Referee Doug Shows should be Fired by the SEC! Why is he not been let go last year or several years ago! He is a Joke!! And I Loved the win but I would have had them shooting Foul Shots at 6:30 this morning!! It has always been a trait or a Trade Mark of all of Calipari teams! And it’s becoming that same thing with the Cats! It cost Calipari a national championship at Memphis and if the hogs had hit their foul shots they would have won.