Kentucky No. 15 won its second victory over Tennessee n ° 5 this season with an upset victory of 75-64 against Rupp Arena volunteers on Tuesday.
The Kentucky won the first confrontation against Tennessee in Knoxville last month without the star goalkeeper Lamont Butler in alignment and eliminated another opponent among the first five without key reinforcements. Butler missed the three previous Kentucky games with a shoulder injury before returning last weekend during his 80-57 victory against South Carolina.
Butler left the match on Tuesday with 8:40 to do in the second half after diving for a loose ball. Butler was shown by walking towards the locker room and did not return.
The Kentucky was without a star guard Jaxson Robinson against Tennessee due to a wrist injury, which means that coach Mark Pope had to go to his bench for a spark. The first -year guard Travis Perry – the signatory of the best classified high school of the Pope of the 2024 recruitment cycle – came out of the bench and scored eight points in 12 minutes.
Perry was one of the five Kentucky players who scored at least eight points. The star goalkeeper Otega Oweh scored a 13 -point summit, while the striker Ansley Almonor added 13.Tenessee entered the week with the defense of 3 points classified n ° 1 in the country, allowing opponents to do only 26.6% of their attempts. The Kentucky pulled 12 out of 24 against Tennessee, with Trent Noah and Koby Brea each reversing three 3 points.
The Wildcats had lost four of their last six games before the victory against the volunteers. After his victory over Tennessee last month in Knoxville, Kentucky lost his next match against Arkansas in the return of John Calipair to Rupp Arena.
The Kentucky (17-7, 6-5 sec) will face Texas in Austin and Tennessee (20-5, 7-5) welcomes Vanderbilt on Saturday.
The loss moves on a seed n ° 2 in fork
The loss of Tennessee is expensive for volunteers. The Tennessee was a seeded seed n ° 1 that dirty the game, but will slip on a seeded n ° 2, according to Jerry Palm, expert in Sports Crochetology. The defeat of the flights, as well as Florida’s victory in the state of the Mississippi, will allow the Gators to jump to a seeded n ° 1 and will be the third seeded n ° 1 ahead of Duke, said Palm.
Kentucky will remain a seeded seed, according to Palm, the next few weeks will decide that will win the regular season of the dry season, but Tennessee lost to Kentucky injured its chances of winning the title of seasonal league twice regular.
The Alabama and Auburn entered the day on the top of the dry classification, and the shock of this weekend could greatly contribute to determine who wins the conference and (potentially) who will win the seeder n ° 1 In less than five weeks of selection on Sunday. Kentucky’s victory over Tennessee should be a great curriculum vitae that the committee will examine next month.
Wildcats needed this victory over Tennessee
The last time the Kentucky played Tennessee, the Wildcats were without star goalkeeper Lamont Butler. With 8:40 am to do in the second half, Butler left the match after seeming to react the shoulder injury that put it aside for three games. At the time of the injury, the Kentucky clung to an advance of 54-52 on Tennessee and closed the match on a 21-12 race.
The Wildcats have had difficulty in recent weeks, and this victory can serve as a huge momentum for the rest of the season. Kentucky was in danger of taking its worst departure from the dry game since the 2020-2010 campaign, but a grainy victory on a difficult Tennessee team should help the Wildcats to get back on the right track after abandoning four of their Last six games.
Kentucky’s 3 -point shot was the difference
During the first confrontation of Kentucky against Tennessee, the Pope’s team reduced 12 of the 24 attempts (50%) of the 3-point line against the best team in the country to defend the shots beyond the arc. In the revenge match, the Kentucky fired … You guessed it … 12 of 24 of the line of 3 points while holding Tennessee only 3 out of 18 (16.7%) beyond the ‘bow. The poor shooting of Tennessee in 3 points was also a theme in the first match. The Rick Barnes team did only 11 out of 45 attempts from the 3 -point line. Six different players from Kentucky struck a 3 -point pointer. It was the difference.
