Kentucky coughs up the lead, and the game, after second-half ‘dud’
On Monday, Tennessee Coach Rick Barnes called Kentucky “the most underrated and underappreciated team in the country.”
Barnes could have added the most thrill-seeking team, which could make the Big Blue Nation the most anxious fan base.
Kentucky led Tennessee by 17 points early in the second half Tuesday night. But that didn’t prevent yet another UK game from coming down to a test of will.
For the 24th time in 30 games, Kentucky and an opponent were separated by seven or fewer points inside the final seven minutes. It was the 16th time one possession separated the teams.
Tennessee rallied for an 81-73 victory.
The seeming inevitability of losing a game decided in the final minutes hung in the air.
“Uh, yeah,” freshman Johnny Juzang reacted when asked if any team can lose, say, a five-minute game. “I mean, that’s a good point.”
UK Coach John Calipari credited Tennessee being more physical, especially in the final minutes.
“You’re trying to win every game,” he said. “But, it’s crazy. You just don’t. And you have a dud like this.
“But, don’t make it about us. This is about Tennessee and how they played.”
Tennessee, 17-13 overall and 9-8 in the Southeastern Conference, made seven of eight free throws inside the final 49.5 seconds to win at Kentucky for only the fourth time since 1979.
Fourth-year junior John Fulkerson, who had not averaged more than 4.7 points in a previous season, scored a career-high 27 points to lead Tennessee.
“Fulkerson killed us, obviously … ,” Calipari said. “Fulkerson caught every ball. We caught none in the post. … He scored on Nick (Richards). He scored on Nate (Sestina). He scored on EJ (Montgomery). We tried everybody.”
Fulkerson contributed seven points in a 29-9 Tennessee run that erased Kentucky’s 51-34 second-half lead and put the Vols ahead 63-60.
And late in the run, Fulkerson beat UK’s double-team by passing to an open Josiah-Jordan James for a three-pointer.
“One of the great performances I’ve witnessed,” Barnes said of Fulkerson.
Kentucky, 24-6 overall and 14-3 in the SEC, committed two turnovers and shot an air ball to typify a confused final three minutes.
Tyrese Maxey, who led Kentucky with 21 points, saluted Fulkerson.
“It takes that kind of performance to beat us,” he said.
Actually, UK’s habit of seeing leads dwindle gave opponents a chance at winning without needing an eye-popping performance.
“We’ve been doing it all year, giving up leads,” Maxey said. “But, you’ve got to bounce back. … You got 24 hours to grieve.”
Kentucky led for all but two minutes and 24 seconds in the first half.
UK led 42-31 at halftime. That marked the highest-scoring first half for Kentucky since getting 45 points in the opening 20 minutes against Alabama on Jan. 11.
Kentucky led throughout almost all of the first half despite getting little offense from Immanuel Quickley. UK’s leading scorer missed six of his first seven shots and scored five points in the half.
Tennessee stayed within shouting distance thanks to Fulkerson. He scored 15 points in a half that breathed life into Barnes’ call for physical play from Fulkerson, who had responded with double-digit points in seven of the eight most recent games.
“It’s not in his nature to play the way he’s been playing,” Barnes said Monday. “The way people game plan for him, he gets pushed. He gets shoved around more than any player I’ve ever coached. … His mindset has changed where he realizes that we need him to be aggressive. …
“No one has got more of a load to carry than what ‘Fulky’ has been carrying in the last couple weeks.”
Sestina set the halftime score with a put-back dunk in the final second. It was his only first-half basket.
It gave Kentucky its largest halftime lead since being up 43-23 on Fairleigh Dickinson on Dec.. 7.
UK scored the first six points of the second half to expand its lead to 48-31 with 17:30 left.
As has been the case much of this season, Kentucky could not expand the lead. Back-to-back Tennessee dunks helped reduce the lead to 51-43 and prompted a UK timeout with 13:57 left.
When Fulkerson made a layup while being pushed by Sestina, Kentucky’s lead was down to 60-57 at the third television timeout.
Tennessee led 68-65 at the fourth TV timeout, setting up yet another possession-by-possession finish for Kentucky.
“I just felt we didn’t fight as hard as we could have, myself included,” Quickley said.
Calipari’s message to the team after the game?
“We need to get together as a team and just have a conversation with each other,” Maxey said. “He said, we can do something this year. Like, this team is really good.
“He doesn’t want this to separate us or bring us apart.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 1:27 AM.
