By Keith Taylor
Special to NKyTribune
Kentucky hasn’t played well on the road this season. The trend continued with an 85-67 loss at LSU Tuesday night.
The ninth-ranked Wildcats (11-3, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) got 23 points from point guard Tyler Ulis and 21 more from Jamal Murray, but little else from the rest of the cast as Kentucky fell to 0-3 in games played away from Rupp Arena.
The Tigers (9-5, 2-0) shut down Kentucky’s inside attack and continued their recent surge after five disappointing non-conference losses in a season that began with high expectations. The win was LSU’s largest margin of victory over a Kentucky team since 1992.
“We weren’t up for the challenge,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “We weren’t ready to compete at the level they competed at, especially our inside people. We didn’t get very much from anybody in there except a lot of fouls. Give credit to LSU. They played well.”
Kentucky’s post players — Marcus Lee, Alex Poythress and Skal Labissiere — combined for just seven points and eight rebounds. Lee played sparingly in both halves, logging five total minutes and fouled out with 13:04 remaining. Poythress left at the 7:29 mark after reaching the foul limit.
The Wildcats managed just 24 points in the paint and committed 14 turnovers. LSU scored 44 points in the post and tallied 22 points off Kentucky’s miscues.
Calipari didn’t have an answer for what went wrong for the Wildcats.
“They didn’t compete like they needed to,” he said. “I know that.”
Ulis said the Wildcats weren’t on the same page, resulting on breakdowns on both ends of the court.
“As a team, we gotta all play,” he said. “We gotta come out there with a 100 percent effort just like we did the last couple games (against Louisville and Ole Miss). We got away from that again. Didn’t have any energy and that’s why we lost.”
Reminiscent of an earlier-season performance against Ohio State, also a loss, Murray did most of his scoring in the second half with 17 points. The freshman guard who has scored double figures in his first 14 collegiate games, made a pair of shots from behind the arc, tying Ulis and Derek Willis for game-high honors with two treys each.
Kentucky kept Ben Simmons from having a career outing, but the LSU superstar received help from teammates Tim Quarterman and Craig Victor II, who posted double-double performances. Quarterman had 21 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, followed by Victor II with 15 points and 12 boards.
Simmons had just two points in the opening half, but finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, for his 11th double-double of the year.
Kentucky reserve Mychal Mulder played 14 minutes and gave the Cats a spark, especially in the first half. Mulder finished with five points and eight rebounds, both career highs.
“I knew Mike could do stuff like that because he can shoot the ball, spread it out for us,” Ulis said. “He made a 3 for us, got a lot of rebounds. He just came out there and didn’t worry about anything, played hard. He gave us big minutes.”
Notes
* LSU’s 30 field goals, 46 rebounds, 44 points in the paint and 17 assists were the most by a UK opponent this season.
* Kentucky matched a season-low in total points with 67.
* The loss snapped UK’s 19-game, regular-season conference winning streak. The Wildcats’ nine-game conference road winning streak also came to a halt.
Game tracker: Kentucky at Alabama, 6 p.m. Saturday. TV/Radio: SEC Network (Channel 27), 98.1 FM WBUL.
Keith Taylor is a columnist and senior sports writer who covers University of Kentucky athletics for KyForward.com