Wildcats Bounce Back with Big Win on the Road -

The Kentucky Wildcats went on the road last night to take on the #14 Mississippi State Bulldogs. Kentucky was coming off their loss to Georgia, while Mississippi State was coming off a 12 point win on the road against Vanderbilt. The Bulldogs were a 4.5 point favorite in their only meeting of the season.

The things Kentucky fans were looking for after the road struggles were for them to be more physical and rebound the ball better. Both of those would be answered

The first half was a back and forth affair with neither team getting ahead by more than 6 points. Mississippi State was led in the first half by Cam Matthews (10 pts, 3-4 fga, 4-7FTs) and Josh Hubbard (10 pts, 3-10 fga, 2-6 from 3). Although Hubbard would struggle from the field, he connected on a 4 pt play with just 5 seconds left in the half to cut a 6 point Kentucky lead to 2.

Lamont Butler would answer back, hitting a 3 at the buzzer to pus the lead back to 5:49.

He wasn’t the story of the first half for Kentucky on offense, that was Jaxson Robinson. Robinson had been counted on to be the primary scorer for the team, but had struggled with his shot most of the year. Last night would be a different story. He would score 16 first half points on 5-6 from the floor, 4-5 from 3 and 2-2 from the line. It was the breakout performance BBN had been waiting for. Helping led the charge in the first half was another player Wildcat fans had voiced some disappointment with, Amari Williams, who had 10 points, 5 rebounds and
3 assists. As a team, Kentucky would shoot 53% from the floor, hit 8-17 from 3 and win the rebounding battle 21-17.

Coming out in the 2nd half, Kentucky quickly stretched the lead out to 10 on a Robinson 3 and an Otega Oweh dunk. Chris Jan’s would call a quick timeout and MSU cut it back to 5 54-49. Over about the next 3 minutes, Kentucky would push the lead back out to 14 and looked like they were going to run away with the game, but MSU would answer in a big way.

Trailing 68-54, MSU would go on a 12-0 run on the back of 5 straight scoring possessions of getting 3 points. The only reason it wasn’t a 15-0 run was a Brandon Garrison three that made it 68-54. From there, it was more back and forth like the first half, but Kentucky always seemed to keep the lead by up to 5 points until Claudell Harris Jr. would hit a 3 to put MSU up 80-78 with 7:16 to go.

MSU had all the momentum until another unlikely contributor stepped up. Ansley Almonor would hit 3 threes over the next 2 minutes to help flip a 2 point deficit to a 7 point lead with 5:16 remaining.

MSU didn’t give up, they turned up the pressure and cut the lead to 1, 91-90 with just 2 minutes to go. But those would be the last points they scored. Robinson would cap his scoring with an 18 foot jumper with 1:05 remaining to make it 93-90 and after another missed 3 by Hubbard, Butler would finish the scoring with a short jumper in the paint with just 15 seconds to go.

MSU would have 5 players in double figures on the night, led by Matthews (19 pts 2-3 from 3). Joining him were RJ Melendez (14pts), Harris Jr. (13 points 3-9 from 3), Michael Nwoko (10 pts 5 rebounds) and Hubbard (15 pts). Although Hubbard would put up a decent point total, he struggled shooting all game going just 5-16 from the floor and 3-11 from 3.

Answering the questions that fans were asking after the Georgia loss, Kentucky came out more aggressive on both ends of the floor and also didn’t let the physical play impact the offensive flow like they had. Joining Robinson (27 pts, 9-12 fga, 7-10 from 3) were Oweh (15 pts, 6-9 fga), Andrew Carr (13 pts 5-8 fga 6 rebounds), Butler (10 points 2-5 from 3), Williams (10 pts, 12 rebounds, 6 assists) and Almonor (11 pts 3-6 from 3). The improved aggressiveness and physicality showed itself on the boards, Kentucky would out rebound MSU 41-33 after losing the battle the previous 2 games.

Kentucky had already shown this season that they could beat the best teams in the country, they’re the only team in the country with 4 top 12 NET rankings wins, but they had been unable to match the physical play against teams they were expected to be better than. Last night was an encouraging sign for the rest of the season, but it doesn’t get any easier next week. Kentucky will host #10 Texas A&M Tuesday night at 7:00pm and then follow that up with No. 5 Alabama.

That’s this year’s SEC, every week is another ranked opponent and it’s gonna