Turnovers sink Kentucky; loss to Georgia Tech has Cats off to 1-3 start
Before Sunday’s game, Georgia Tech Coach Josh Pastner said his team needed a superlative performance to defeat Kentucky.
“We’ll have to play an incredible game,” he said. “Near perfect.”
Twenty-one Kentucky turnovers made for a lot of room for imperfection. Tech beat Kentucky 79-62, which marked only the fifth double-digit defeat for UK in an off-and-on series spanning 72 games.
Kentucky’s record fell to 1-3, which marked only fifth time since 1925-26 that a UK team began a season with losses in at least three of the first four games. UK will try to avoid its first four-game losing streak since 2017-18 in a home game against Notre Dame on Saturday.
Kentucky had struggled offensively coming into the game. And the Cats ranked 234th nationally in turnover margin.
Defense let UK down against Georgia Tech, which made 18 of 29 shots (62.1 percent) in the second half.
As with the Richmond game, UK faced a huge deficit in experience. Stats savant Ken Pomeroy ranked Kentucky as the least experienced team in the nation and Tech as having the sixth-most experience. Tech had only six turnovers.
Freshmen Terrence Clarke and Brandon Boston led UK with 22 and 11 points, respectively.
Big man Moses Wright’s 21 points led Tech to its first victory in three games.
Twelve first-half turnovers contributed to Kentucky’s first halftime deficit of the season. The Cats trailed 34-27 at the break.
Kentucky could not blame three-point shooting for the deficit. UK made three of its four treys. Clarke, who missed all four of his previous three-point shots, led the way by making two of two. Overall, Kentucky made four of eight shots from beyond the arc.
Clarke led UK’s scoring with 15 points in the first half.
But the 12 turnovers and eight assists (five by Davion Mintz) continued a trend. That made 21 assists and 49 turnovers since the opening-game victory over Morehead State.
Another problem was foul trouble. Boston, UK’s leading scorer, picked up his second foul at the 15:17 mark and played only two minutes the rest of the half.
Kentucky trailed much of the first half. The deficit reached its zenith at 32-22 inside the final two minutes.
Clarke’s driving shot with 26 seconds left set the halftime score.
Nothing changed as the second half began. Kentucky turned the ball over on its first possession and three of the first four.
That generosity helped Georgia Tech expand its lead to 41-30.
A three-pointer by Clarke helped Kentucky reduce the deficit to 41-35. That prompted a Georgia Tech timeout with 16:32 left.
A floater by Isaiah Jackson made it a one-possession game with 12:36 left. Tech led 45-42.
But taking advantage of a matchup against Olivier Sarr, Wright scored back-to-back baskets which began a 7-0 mini-run that put UK behind 52-42 with 10:36 left.
Next game
Notre Dame at No. 20 Kentucky
Noon Saturday (CBS-27)
This story was originally published December 6, 2020 at 7:16 PM.
