By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Kentucky is making it a habit of comeback wins and captured its third straight victory with an 80-78 triumph over No. 24 Tennessee on Saturday.
Coming off a buzzer-beating win over LSU earlier this week, the Wildcats rallied to defeat the Volunteers after falling behind 17 points in the first half. Kentucky (12-6, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) notched its third straight win and defeated the Volunteers for the fourth straight time at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Collin Chandler, who threw the game-winning half-court heave to Malachi Moreno in the win over the Tigers earlier this week, had a clutch steal in the closing seconds that led to a go-ahead basket by Otega Oweh. Moments later, Moreno had a block at the buzzer that sealed the deal for the Wildcats.
“Our team loves playing in Knoxville,” Chandler said. “It’s a great team effort. We knew just our team knows how to respond. I think today was a perfect example of that. This week has been a perfect example of that.”
Behind the scenes, Kentucky coach Mark Pope and his squad have found no answer for their first-half starts and addressed the issue in a team meeting on Friday night. Instead of using the slow starts as a negative, Pope sees a silver lining in his team’s resilience.
“What it says about these guys’ resilience and toughness is I hope nobody’s missing it,” Pope said. “I hope people aren’t missing it. I hope they’re not missing what this group is going through, what this group is trying to endure what this group is trying to become, and what this group is actually doing on the on the court for three straight SEC games now — coming (in at) halftime down heavy, things looking bad and everybody being discouraged, except for the players in our locker room, that’s really special.
“Don’t miss it, because it’s a tribute to these guys.”
Mo Dioubate personified that toughness for the Wildcats, collecting 10 points and five rebounds including running down several hustle rebounds. His defensive work was also pivotal along with some game-winning type plays that don’t show up in the scorebook. He was a plus 16 in the plus-minus category, easily leading Kentucky.
After Oweh missed a free throw, Diobate had a huge offensive rebound and Denzel Aberdeen followed with a score on a drive to give Kentucky an 80-77 lead with 16 seconds remaining.
Tennessee was fouled with 2.6 seconds remaining and the Vols made the first free throw before intentionally missing the second. The Vols got the loose ball rebound, but Moreno blocked a shot that would have tied the game as the buzzer sounded.
Aberdeen had a big hand in the rally by the Wildcats and finished with 22 points, scoring 18 of those in the second half. Aberdeen scored seven of the first 11 points of the second half that helped pave the way to a successful comeback.
“I thought Denzel Aberdeen was ridiculous, to me,” Pope said. “He was so good. … the ball was in his hands (and) it must have been in his hands for six minutes in the second half, which is crazy. He made great decision after great decision. I don’t know if there’s anybody playing better than him over the last game and a half. He was incredible.”
Aberdeen and Chandler combined for seven of Kentucky’s 11 3-pointers. Chandler finished with 12 points and missed just two of six shots from the field.
Although the Wildcats were down by double digits for most of the first half, the Wildcats made four of their first seven treys, but the hosts connected on six 3-pointers in the opening half, coupled with an 11-0 run in a three-minute stretch, and led 42-31 at the break.
While Aberdeen was heroic in the second half, freshman guard Jasper Johnson connected on a pair of treys and finished with 12 points, scoring all of those in the second half.
“He’s on his way,” Pope said. “I thought he was terrific. He actually gave us a massive lift when we were stuck. And I thought he was absolutely terrific defensively. He was really solid. I’m proud of him.”
Oweh finished with 12 points and has scored in double figures in all 18 games this season for the Wildcats.
Ja’Kobi Gillespie led all scorers with 24 points for Tennessee (12-6, 2-3), which suffered its first home loss of the season.
Gametracker: Texas at Kentucky, 7 p.m., Wednesday. TV/Radio: SECN, UK Radio Network.