Cats Get 'Ugly' Win in Hostile Environment
Wednesday night was simply not Kentucky’s night. The Cats struggled all night at Texas A&M. They didn’t shoot well. They didn’t rebound well. They turned the ball over.
But, in the end, the Cats were able to scratch out a 64-58 win in front of the largest crowd to ever see a game at Reed Arena.
It was a gritty performance down the stretch by veterans Davion Mintz and Jacob Toppin, along with freshman TyTy Washington Jr.
“In a close game like this, the environment was crazy,” Toppin said. “For us to stay together when they went on their runs, it’s big. Big time. It just shows the kind of group we are.”
Kentucky head coach John Calipari has emphasized the last four minutes of the game to his team, and the Cats came through down the stretch tonight.
“Down the stretch, we definitely made plays that won us the game,” Toppin said. “We definitely played a lot better in the last four minutes. Coach has always emphasized the last four minutes of the game if we’re in a close game situation, how we’re going to finish. And I think we did a pretty well job of finishing the game. We still have some things we need to work on but that’s just a part of basketball. So, we’re going to go back to the drawing board, see what we need to fix and get better at it.”
UK won despite a season-high 17 turnovers and tying a season low by shooting 36.2 percent. Mintz called it what it was.
“I’m just proud of this team, came away with a win, regardless of how ugly that was tonight,” Mintz said. “We won, that’s all that matters.”
Calipari was pleased with how certain players were able to step up to help the Cats get over the hump on Wednesday.
“A couple of guys didn’t play well. That’s OK. You’re not machines, you’re not robots,” Calipari said. “Other guys stepped in and played well. How about Jacob (Toppin) and how he played? How about Lance (Ware)? When Lance went in, when we needed him. And went in and, we ran an offense through him? Unbelievable. Then, what happened with TyTy (Washington Jr.), we were going to him, he turned it over twice. I took him out and said ‘hey kid, in a big game, this is who you are? You can’t make a play? You turn it over? You’ve got to prove, in this game, you can make baskets.’ And I stuck him back in and went at him and he made two big hoops. He kind of bowed his neck and I was happy with that.”
Calipari liked that his team showed a lot of fight despite shooting a low percentage.
“Is it 36 percent? That’s even better,” Calipari said. “That means you know you had to fight and you had to guard, you had to rebound or you had no chance of winning.”
The Cats turned up the defense down the stretch. Leading 60-58, UK held TAMU scoreless for the final 2:47 of the game, covering five Aggie possessions. Toppin attributed that to one thing.
“Pride. I don’t think we took pride in our defense in the first half,” Toppin said. “We gave up a lot of straight-line drives and had a lot of turnovers that led to layups. The second half, we just brough it all together and played better basketball, to be honest.”
It may not have been the prettiest win, but the Cats got in done on the road, facing numerous obstacles, on Wednesday.
