Kentucky-Tennessee Men's Basketball Postgame Notes

KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME NOTES
FOOD CITY CENTER | KNOXVILLE, TN
MARCH 9, 2024

Final Score: No. 15/13 Kentucky 85, No. 4 Tennessee 81

Team Records and Series Notes

Kentucky completes the regular season 23-8, 13-5 in the Southeastern Conference.
- Kentucky extended its win streak to five games in a row.
- Kentucky finishes in a tie for second place in the SEC.
Tennessee is 24-7 overall and won the SEC regular-season championship with a 14-4 league mark.

Kentucky leads the series 161-78. This was UK’s second consecutive win in Knoxville and UK leads 59-53 in games played there.
Next for Kentucky: the Wildcats clinch a double bye in the SEC Tournament and will play Friday in Nashville. As this was written, time and seeding have not finalized.

Team Notes

Kentucky is now 5-2 this season against ranked opponents.
Kentucky finished the regular season 9-4 away from Rupp Arena, including 7-3 on the opponent’s home court.
Kentucky limited Tennessee to 37.8% from the field. UK is 8-0 this season, and 241-24 (90.9%) in the Coach John Calipari era, when keeping the opponent shooting percentage to 40 percent or less.
Kentucky scored 85 points.
- UK entered the game third in the nation in scoring at 89.7 points per game.
Kentucky shot 45.8%, not far from the season mark of 49.8%, which is fifth in the nation.
Kentucky shot 51.7% from 3-point range, 15 of 29.
- 15 long balls tied UK’s season high in an SEC game.
- The Wildcats entered the game second in the nation at 40.8%.
Kentucky shot 88.9% on free throws, 16 of 18, the 10^th straight game at least 75% at the line.
Kentucky won the rebounding, 42-37. UK is 15-0 this season when winning or tying the board work.
Kentucky won bench points, 38-5.
Kentucky led by as many as 14 points. UK is 349-17 (95.4%) in the John Calipari era when leading by at least 10 points at some point in the game.
Dalton Knecht had 40 points for Tennessee, most for a Kentucky opponent since Elston Turner of Texas A&M tallied 40 on January 12, 2013.

Player Notes

Antonio Reeves had 27 points, his seventh straight 20-point game and 18th of the season. He grabbed seven rebounds, the second game in a row he led the Wildcats in rebounding.
- Reeves is first Wildcat with seven consecutive 20-point games since Jamal Murray had 12 in a row in February/March 2016.
- He has scored in double figures in every game but one this season.
- He also has hit at least one 3-pointer in every game but one this season.
- He has 1,115 points in his two seasons as a Wildcat – moving past Jeff Sheppard to No. 49 on the all-time UK list. He remains No. 3 among Wildcats who played only two seasons at UK.
Reed Sheppard had 27 points, including 22 in the second half. He made 7 of 10 on 3-pointers.
- He led the team in assists with five.
- He had one steal, remaining in third on the UK single-season list with 78.
Justin Edwards had 16 points, including his career-high-tying four 3-pointers.
- He had six rebounds and led the Wildcats in plus/minus at +13.
- It is his 13^th double-figure game of the season.
Limited to 17 minutes because of foul trouble, Rob Dillingham scored 11 points, his 25^th double-figure scoring game of the season.

Coach John Calipari

Calipari has an 855-261 (76.6%) all-time on-court record, including 410-121 (77.2%) at Kentucky.
Calipari is 74-51 (59.2%) against ranked opponents while at Kentucky.
Calipari is 406-131 (75.6%) in conference games during his career, including 198-65 (75.3%) in the SEC.
Calipari is 22-16 vs. Tennessee.

In the First Half

Kentucky started J. Wagner, Antonio Reeves, Justin Edwards, Adou Thiero and Ugonna Onyenso for the sixth game. UK is 5-1 with this lineup.
Tre Mitchell was UK’s first substitution with 17:59 remaining.
Trailing 12-9 midway through the half, Kentucky hit three straight 3-pointers to claim an 18-12 lead and the Wildcats never trailed again.
UK led by 11 points at 31-20, but Tennessee ended the half on a 9-2 run to narrow the gap to 33-29 at intermission.
- Edwards led the Wildcats with 13 points and Reeves had 11.
UK is 20-3 this season when leading at halftime.

In the Second Half

Kentucky began the second half with Wagner, Reeves, Edwards, Thiero and Onyenso.
A 9-0 run gave UK its then-largest lead at 51-39.
Moments later, a 9-2 spurt pushed the lead to its largest of the game at 60-46.
Kentucky led 68-54 when Tennessee hit a 9-0 run to close within five at 68-63.
Kentucky pushed it back to 84-73 with 55 seconds left when Tennessee scored eight straight to make it 84-81.
Dillingham was fouled with 5.9 seconds left and made the second of two free throws for the 85-81 final.

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