Kentucky Wins Another Top 15 Matchup -

Tuesday night at Rupp Arena, the #8 Kentucky Wildcats welcomed in the #11 Texas A&M Aggies. A&M was playing its 3 rd straight game without their best player, Wade Taylor IV who is dealing with a groin injury, but they did let that stop them from getting off to a good start.

A&M came into the contest shooting just 30% from behind the three point line for the season, but they came out firing. Kentucky, on the other hand, came in shooting 42% in league play. You wouldn’t have known it from the start. In the first half, A&M would hit 4 of their first 10 and 7-18 for the half. Kentucky started just 1-11 and it all led to a 18-11 A&M lead after a 12- 0 run.

After Andrew Carr got back to back buckets in the paint to put Kentucky up 11-6, Jace Carter and Hayden Hefner would both hit 3s along with 2 free throws Pharrel Payne, a Jumper by Zhuric Phelps and a dunk by Manny Obaseki. The dunk resulted in a technical foul on the Aggies bench, but also seemed like a turning point in the half.

Down 18-11, the Wildcats would find a their shooting stroke and finished the half on a 24-14 run the final 8 minutes of the half. They finished the half 4-6 from 3, 3 of them from Jaxson Robinson and one from Ansley Almonor. Almonor would also get fouled on a 3 point shot and knock down all 3 free throws. Robinson was coming off a 7-10 three point shooting game against Mississippi State, and went 4-9 from 3 in the first half. One of those also resulted in a taunting technical foul after knocking one done and then turning to wave the bench and
Buzz Williams off. It didn’t slow, him down as Brandon Garrison would hit Robinson with a pass for another halftime buzzer beating 3 from Kentucky to go to the break up 35-32.

Kentucky came out of the locker room and, quickly, pushed the lead out to 12 points on free throws from Otega Oweh (his first points of the game), 2 threes for Travis Perry sandwiched around another Robinson 3. Three minutes into the 2 nd half, Kentucky had a 12 point lead and A&M never got closer than 6 the rest of the way.

The hot shooting that A&M used to get out to the lead in the first half, went frigid in the 2nd half. The Aggies would go 0-12 from 3 in the 2 nd half and Kentucky would hit 4-10. It wasn’t just 3 point shooting that Kentucky excelled in, they also beat A&M at their own game.

A&M came into the game rebounding 44% of their misses on the season, Tuesday night, that number was just 28%. Kentucky, who had been hearing people calling them soft, won the rebounding battle by 10, 40-30. They also had more offensive rebounds (12-11), points in the paint (28-22), blocks (4-3), steals (9-7) and free throw attempts (31-25). After being outshot from the free throw line in their first 2 SEC games, Kentucky has now shot more than their last 2
opponents.

Kentucky would finish with an 81-69 win, led again by Robinson. He had 22 points on 8- 17 from the floor and 5-13 from 3. Not only that, he had 8 rebounds, 2 assists, a block and was +20 on the night. Joining Robinson in double figures were Oweh (11 pts 7-10 FTs) and Carr (13 pts 6-9 fgs).

Not to be overlooked was Amari Williams who had another big game and was instrumental in Kentucky winning the physicality battle. He finished the night with 8 points, 12 rebounds (3 offensive), 4 assists, a block and a steal. It was another strong performance after he struggled against Georgia. The last 2 games bode well, not just for Williams, but Kentucky in league play as they’ve exceeded the physicality of two of the more physical teams in the SEC.

A&M was led by Phelps with 21 points on 8-19 shooting and 2-9 from 3. Joining him in double figures were Payne (15 pts 5-5 fgs) and Obaseki (12 pts 4-9 fgs 2-5 from 3).

Kentucky doesn’t have much time to rest as #4 Alabama makes a trip to Rupp Arena Saturday at Noon. Alabama will be looking to bounce back after taking a 10 point home loss to Ole Miss Tuesday night. Kentucky will have their work cut out for them, but if they can continue to play physical, they have a great chance to pick up their sixth top 15 win of the season.