J.D. Hall 
Kentucky Basketball
Coming off the big win over Duke in the Champion’s Classic, Kentucky was ripe for a letdown
game against Lipscomb. That didn’t happen. The Wildcats jumped on them from the opening tip and
would cruise to a 97-68 victory, that wasn’t even as close to the final score.
The big story for Kentucky was Jaxson Robinson. He has struggled, for his standards, to start the
season. He had scored 8, 14 and 1 point in the previous three games, but broke out for 20 last night.
Kentucky would get off to another hot start from 3, going 8-13 from deep in the first half. Robinson
would account for 2 and go 3-6 from deep on the night. Robinson was joined in double figures by
Lamont Butler (16 points 3-3 from 3), Otega Oweh (14 points 1-1 from 3) and Kobe Brea (12 points 3-3
from 3). Kentucky would go 12-25 from 3 on the night, becoming the first Kentucky team to hit 10+ 3s in
the first 4 games to start a season. Brea continued his scorching start and is now 15-19 from 3 on the
season for an unbelievable 78.9%.
Offense wasn’t the only place Kentucky shined. The first half saw them hold Lipscomb to 26
points and just 2-19 from 3. The Wildcats would also dominate on the glass 43-28 grabbing 34 defensive
rebounds. Lipscomb would finish the night just 5-29 (17.2%) from 3. That’s now two consecutive
opponents that have shot below 18% against Kentucky from deep, an impressive little run.
The second half was more of the same from Kentucky. They would score on 14 of 17 possessions
before the 10 minute mark of the 2 nd half, pushing the lead out to 30, 73-43. Coach Pope would call off
the Cats, up 85-48, bringing in Trent Noah and Travis Perry for the final 6:43 of the game. They would
push the lead out to 40, 95-55, before Lipscomb would finish the game on a 13-2 run to make the game
look closer.
The two most exciting plays happened in the 2 nd half. The first, came off a Colin Chandler steal.
As the ball was going out of bounds, Chandler sent a long snap between his legs, on target, to Amari
Williams for a fast break dunk. The other, was for Perry, as he scored his first points in a Kentucky
uniform with a runner in the paint with 1:45 to go in the game.
Kentucky’s star of the game against Duke, Andrew Carr was held to just 2 points on 1-5 shooting,
but he contributed in other ways. Despite scoring just those 2 points, Carr was tied for the team lead in
plus/minus with Robinson at +29 for the game. It’s a great sign, on a veteran team that when players are
struggling on offense, they don’t let it effect the rest of their game. We saw it with Robinson against
Duke and again tonight with Carr.
The Bisons were led by Jacob Ognacevic with 17 points and 8 rebounds. The Bisons would have
2 others in double figures, Charlie Williams (13 3-8 from 3) and Will Pruitt (12 0-1 from 3).
Kentucky returns to action Friday at 7:00pm in a matchup with Jackson State on SECN+/ESPN+
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