By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
For the third time this season, Jamal Murray eclipsed the 30-point mark but it wasn’t enough for Kentucky in a 74-62 loss to Vanderbilt Saturday in Nashville.
Murray led all scorers with 33 points but the Commodores used a big second half to defeat the Wildcats and remain in contention for the Southeastern Conference regular season title. Kentucky (21-8, 11-5 SEC) fell into a first-place tie with Texas A&M for the league lead with two games remaining in the regular season.
“Jamal carried us and tried the whole game,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “And that was it. And we had a chance to win. That’s why I’m not like crazy right now.”
The Wildcats led by eight points in the first half but couldn’t keep the lead despite a 39-36 advantage at the break. Vanderbilt (18-11, 10-6) outscored Kentucky 38-23 in the second half to get the win. Kentucky missed its last nine field goals and didn’t score in the final 3:49.
BOXSCORE: Vandy 74, Kentucky 62
Kentucky defeated the Commodores 76-57 on Jan. 23, but a second-half meltdown prevented the Wildcats from a season sweep of the two conference foes. Kentucky shot just 27 percent in the second half and made just 10-of-23 free throws.
“What disappoints me is this was the kind of game – this is like an NCAA Tournament game, and it was like some guys didn’t ring the bell,” Calipari said. “Now you become a little worried, can they ring the bell? Because this was an NCAA Tournament-type game. Now, you can say it was on the road, (but) we had a lot of fans here. So this became like an NCAA Tournament game. We had half the fans, they had half the fans. Guys didn’t ring the bell.”
Murray did most of his scoring in the first half with 21 points. Murray managed just 12 points in the final half. Murray scored Kentucky’s last field goal with 6:16 remaining. Murray drained all six of Kentucky’s shots from long range.
“I was hot, I was hitting shots,” Murray said. “I was finding openings and playing off guys. They found me and I was able to hit shots. But we were only up three at halftime and that says a lot if I’m able to get hot. As a team, we (couldn’t) stop them from scoring.”
Aside from Murray, Kentucky got little production from the rest of the roster. Tyler Ulis followed Murray with 12 points, Marcus Lee had nine points and Isaiah Briscoe contributed with eight.
Kentucky’s post players — Lee, Skal Labissiere, Isaac Humphries and Alex Poythress — combined for nine points and 11 rebounds. Poythress, playing in his second game since returning from a knee injury, fouled out with 6:26 remaining.
“Their front-court players were better than ours today,” Calipari said. “Now they weren’t when they played us in Lexington. So you tell me—I wish I had the answer. I don’t. Our bigs were better than their bigs at our place. Their bigs were better than ours here and took it right at us and we did not fight back. That’s just what happened.”
Lee had no answers for Kentucky’s letdown in the post, especially in the second half.
“Today just wasn’t our day as bigs and we have to figure out as quick as possible and not let this be another setback,” Lee said.
Calipari agreed and said the Wildcats don’t have much time to dwell on the loss.
“Our bigs were better than their bigs at our place,” Calipari said. “Their bigs were better than ours here and took it right at us and we did not fight back. That’s just what happened. Now we move on to the next game. We got another tough road game.”
Game tracker: Kentucky at Florida, 7 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: ESPN, 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a columnist and senior sports writer who covers University of Kentucky athletics for KyForward.com