By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
The “Battle in Seattle” lived up to the hype, especially in the second half and overtime on Saturday night after an epic Kentucky comeback against Gonzaga in a game with a March feel to it.
The fourth-ranked Wildcats rallied from an 18-point deficit in the second half to defeat No. 7 Gonzaga, 90-89, in a game that ended after midnight this morning, giving Mark Pope his second win over a Top 10 foe this season.
The Wildcats overcame their biggest deficit of the year and ended the Bulldogs’ streak of 175 consecutive victories when leading at halftime.
“We came out here, had a job to do,” said Otega Oweh, who had 13 points and six rebounds. “I’m so glad we got the win.”
Oweh said after falling behind 50-34 at the half, the Cats were determined to make the last 20 minutes matter. “We were coming together as a group. We didn’t come all the way out here to be punked. We gotta show some pride. We just have to stay even kneel, forget about the score at the time and play hard.”
“Oweh was absolutely terrific, as were a bunch of our guys,” Pope said, rattling off several players.
Kentucky’s switch to a 1-3-1 zone in the second half was pivotal.
“It was huge,” Oweh said. “Gonzaga is really good in transition. We wanted to slow them down so we needed to cause some confusion”
Pope quipped that “it’s easy to make that decision (changing defenses) when you’re getting cooked.”
“We were having no success (stopping them),” he said. “They were really tearing us up with ball screens. The zone helped us. We kept changing up the zone. It just kind of let us stay afloat until we could find our legs offensively.”
Kentucky (8-1) trailed 52-34 early in the second half before using a 16-2 run to pull within 58-55 with six minutes remaining. The Wildcats stayed within single digits until a basket by Andrew Carr tied the score at 79-79 at the end of regulation.
Pope’s squad scored the first seven points of the extra period and fended off a Gonzaga surge. Jaxson Robinson’s floater in the lane gave the Wildcats a 90-86 lead with 14 seconds remaining in overtime. Kentucky survived a wild finish in the final 14 seconds of overtime that ended with a Gonzaga 3-pointer, two missed free throws by Carr, and a scramble for a loose ball at the buzzer to give Kentucky the narrow victory.
Carr led the Wildcats with 19 points to lead five players in double figures. Robinson, who handled point guard duties in the final nine minutes after Kerr Kriisa left the game because of an unspecified injury, followed with 18 points, scoring 15 in the second half.
Oweh had 13 points, followed by Amari Williams with 12 and Brandon Garrison added 10 points off the bench.
Kentucky was without starting point guard Lamont Butler, who tweaked his ankle in the second half of last Tuesday’s setback to Clemson. Kriisa made his first start in the absence of Butler and finished with eight points and four assists. Kriisa made two 3-pointers, the first of which produced the guard’s 1,00th career point.
The Wildcats broke a two-game losing streak to Gonzaga, which won the first two contests of the six-game series that began two years ago.
Gametracker: Colgate at Kentucky, 8 p.m., Wednesday. TV/Radio: ESPN2, UK Radio Network.