Kentucky showed a lot of grit in completing a regular-season sweep over Tennessee.
For every piece of adversity the Kentucky Wildcats encounter this season, they have an even greater response. That was the case Tuesday night in their 75-64 win over the No. 5 Tennessee Volunteers.
Lamont Butler exited the game with 8:40 left in the second half after re-aggravating his left shoulder. Kentucky led 54-52 at the time but fell behind 58-55 two minutes later.
That’s where Kentucky dug deep and utilized an incredible amount of resilience and resolve to outscore the Volunteers 20-6 over the final seven minutes to finish off a regular-season sweep of Tennessee.
“It was really great to be a part of this epic game tonight,” Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said. “I’m so proud of our guys. We have guys that just want to fight and compete. We’ve got ballers, right? They just want to be ballers man; they just want to come play.
“Really proud of our guys and really happy and just grateful beyond belief that we get to be on this magical, incredible journey that you only get to do with the University of Kentucky. It’s pretty great.”
Here are my eight takeaways from Tuesday night’s win over No. 5 Tennessee.
1. Travis Perry and Trent Noah may get all the headlines from this game, and they should. But Kentucky does not win this game without Ansley Almonor. He tied for the team lead with 13 points, hitting two 3-pointers and shooting 4-5 from the field overall.
“I know I told you all that he was going to win some games before the season, I didn’t even expect he would win us this many,’ Pope said. “I honestly did not recruit him to be a downhill, euro-step, through contact finisher in the crucial moment of the game against the best defensive team in the country, but he did it. He’s been so good. Man, he’s just super fun.”
Almonor’s final three points came on a 3-point play that tied the game at 58-58 with 5:59 to play. They were three badly-needed points just moments after Butler left the game.
“I just felt like that was, you know, we needed a bucket at that time, so I got a little bit creative,” Almonor said. “We are all basketball players, so it’s in our game, or something like that.”
In two games against Tennessee this season, Almonor has 25 points and six 3-pointers.
2. If Butler and Jaxson Robinson are both out for any significant amount of time, look for Koby Brea to be a player that steps up. Not just as a 3-point shooter, but he could take on the role of point guard and bring the ball up the floor.
Brea had 11 points and three 3-pointers on Tuesday night, two of them coming in Kentucky’s 20-6 run to close out the game.
“I just felt like I have confidence in myself, and I feel like the team has confidence in me too,” Brea said. “I can take those shots and make those shots.”
Brea made three 3-pointers in both games against Tennessee this regular season. In wins over Tennessee (twice) and Florida, both currently top five teams, Brea has made a combined 13 3-pointers
3. This game Tuesday night was partially a carbon copy of the game in Knoxville two weeks ago. Kentucky shot 50 percent from the floor against Tennessee again on Tuesday night, after shooting 50 percent against the Volunteers in Knoxville two weeks ago. And just as they also did in Knoxville, Kentucky shot 12-for-24 from 3-point range against Tennessee at Rupp Arena on Tuesday night.
4. Alright, now to the headline of the night. Travis Perry and Trent Noah were sensational. Both are not afraid to let it fly from 3-point range, and both look like they belong out on the court. The fact that they are both Kentucky kids makes it even better to watch them play and be key contributors to this Wildcats team.
Noah, in particular, has recently received the nickname “Mountain Mamba.” He knocked down three 3-pointers Tuesday night, and Pope attributed his success Tuesday night to Noah’s full intensity and incredible physicality.
“When you do that every single day, that’s the part that people don’t see,” Pope said. “They just see tonight. His journey to get to tonight was pretty special. He is just built different man, he’s really special. He’s a really special player and he’s going to continue to get better and better with all of these freshmen. We have a really good freshman group.”
5. How ‘bout Otega Oweh? Twenty-four straight games in double figures to start this season, and he also led Kentucky in rebounds on Tuesday night with six. Not to mention, he also had two blocks. One of those blocks came late in the first half, where Oweh blocked a shot by Tennessee’s leading scorer, Chaz Lanier. Oweh then let Lanier have it on their way to the other end of the court.
6. Butler was arguably Kentucky’s most important player on the court before he left the game. In just under 20 minutes, Butler had six points, four assists and three steals. He started the game with a clean steal and fast break lay-up, and he also had a steal and assist to Oweh plus another lay-up just before he re-aggravated his left shoulder. Butler’s efforts made it even harder for Pope and Kentucky when he went down in the second half.
“Mostly in the moment I was just feeling for Lamont,” Pope said. “We feel this all the time. We don’t have that much time left, and he’s been so incredibly such a winner and such a leader, and it’s like, I just want him so badly to be able to play.
“My biggest thought at the moment was, oh man, there’s nobody that wants to be on this court more than Lamont Butler.”
7. Kentucky now has three straight games with fewer than 10 turnovers. That’s crucial, especially if they’re going to be without three point guards for a significant period of time.
8. The resiliency of this Kentucky team is so impressive. Every win is a team effort, and that’s just how Mark Pope wants it to be.
“Every single guy on our roster that could play tonight made important plays. I like Kentucky being that way,” Pope said. “I actually love it. It feels right to me. Maybe it is because of how we were when I played here. Maybe it’s because of what I know. Maybe it’s because it’s how the state of Kentucky works, this community works. But I dig it, man. I think it’s a good representation of where we are in the state.”