Vicky Graff Photo
With 14 1/2 minutes Kentucky had a 16-point lead (53-37) over Missouri in the Southeastern Conference Tournament. However, any Kentucky fan who has watched this team play knew that did not guarantee a win and with 2 1/2 minutes to go Missouri had a 70-69 lead.
However, coach Mark Pope’s team did not let the win slip away thanks in large part to Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen, the team’s two best players. The Cats got two free throws from Aberdeen and an Oweh layup for a 73-70 lead with 1:13 left. After another stop, Aberdeen scored to extend the lead to 75-70 with 22 seconds remaining and UK won 78-72.
“I think for us, it’s just attention to our details, staying together. We’re in constant communication. We’re huddling after every dead ball, in timeouts. I think we do a great job at staying together, staying composed,” sophomore Collin Chandler on the mood after the lead disappeared. “I think we did a good job at showing that today when the momentum was on their side, being able to reverse it. I think we did a good job at that.”
Pope said his team had been “all over the map in games” with big momentum swings all season.
“Our guys and staff are good at staying focused in the moment, understanding what’s happening,” Pope said about losing the lead. “Credit Missouri. We were in a place where we felt comfortable. They just said we’re going to bully you inside. They bullied us inside.
“Our guys are pretty well-trained. They’ve adopted trying to stay as steady as they can, focus on finding answers and solutions rather than getting sideways with scenarios. They did a good job with that today.”
Chandler, who had 15 points on 5-for-6 shooting, liked that UK actually got the early lead rather than playing from behind as it has way too often this season.
“I thought we did great today from the tip. Our first four minutes we did a great job at setting the tone. Our guys came out and were physical,” Chandler said. “Missouri is a great team. We knew it was going to be a battle. Everyone is battling for their season here in Nashville. I think we did a good job at responding to their physicality.
“Props to them, but we’re really proud of the way we performed today.”
Kentucky fans might be more relieved than proud after sensing UK might blow a lead and lose to Missouri like it did in Rupp Arena in January. But not this time in a game UK needed to win to avoid potentially dropping a spot in the NCAA Tournament seedings.
It helped to have Chandler back as an offensive threat. He had struggled making shots the last three games after going 7-for-10 in a win over Vanderbilt. There was even a fan theory that when he wore an undershirt under his jersey, his shooting was off. He did not have an undershirt on for this game.
“I don’t know about the whole undershirt thing,” the sophomore guard said. “Someone might call it a struggle offensively. I think it’s been a great learning time this last week and a half for me.
“There’s a few moments in the season where I feel like you’re learning a lot. So, with scouting changing, I think it’s forced me or allowed me to get more creative and find different ways to impact the game. Early in the game, I was trying to get out in transition. Later in the game it was finding my moments, finding my spots where I could impact the game in a positive way without forcing anything, doing what we do as a team.”
Pope has continued to talk about writing a beautiful story to end the season for a team that already has 12 losses going into Friday’s quarterfinal matchup with Florida. Could that really happen?
“I think it’s just been a season full of experiences because we faced a lot of adversity. I think, in my opinion, that adversity is coming to help us right now. We’re going to continue to use that this time of the year,” Chandler said. “I think we’ve done a great job in a lot of games finding ways to win. I think we did that again today. That’s the biggest thing for this time of year, is finding ways to win.”
That’s true but Kentucky has not found a way to beat Florida in two previous games. Both times it fell behind by double digits before fighting back into the game. However, UK has not had the lead in the second half of either previous game against Florida.
“Obviously we know them. We haven’t spent a single second talking about them the last few days, the last week. We haven’t mentioned Florida once,” Chandler said. “We were focused on Missouri completely. Now we can put a bow on that game. We’re going to go back and talk about Florida these next 24 hours for what we have tomorrow.”
