Tennessee overcame a rough first half and pulled away in the second to beat the Kentucky Wildcats 76-65 in Thompson-Boling Arena this evening. Admiral Schofield led the way with 20 points on 8-13 shooting, and he added 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and a block, not to mention the exclamation point slam in the final seconds.
Grant Williams and Lamonte Turner each also hit double figures, and the team held Kentucky’s Kevin Knox and Hamidou Diallo to 6 and 5 points, respectively.
The game marked Tennessee’s third straight win over Kentucky in Knoxville for Rick Barnes’ team. Heading into the game, Kentucky’s three-point defense (29.2%), shot-blocking, and offensive rebounding were the concerns. Not to worry, as the Vols hit 8 of 22 three-pointers (36.4%), and Kentucky blocked only 4 of Tennessee’s 55 shots and rebounded only 8 of their own 52 attempts. Tennessee turned Kentucky over 16 times.
The win brings Tennessee to 10-4 overall and 1-2 in the SEC, two games behind 3-0 Florida. Up next is Vanderbilt, on Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. in Nashville.
What a fun night in Thompson-Boling.
Beating Kentucky usually means that we have a pretty good team or it “makes the season” if we aren’t that good. Either way, it was really sweet watching Calipari in the press conference and on the sidelines. Nice bounce back from a bad week