Tennessee powers past Kentucky, hands the Wildcats their second straight loss in Rupp
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Game day: No. 5 Tennessee 103, No. 10 Kentucky 92
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Tennessee at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
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Kentucky’s skid on the basketball court continued Saturday night.
With Rupp Arena packed and loud in anticipation of a top-10 battle between SEC rivals, the Wildcats came out flat and never fully recovered, falling 103-92 to No. 5-ranked Tennessee for their third loss in four games.
No. 10 Kentucky dropped to 15-6 on the season and 5-4 in SEC play with its latest loss. At the midway point of conference play, the Cats are already three games behind Alabama (16-6, 8-1) in the league standings. Tennessee improved to 16-5 overall and 6-2 in the SEC.
The Volunteers dictated the play early on with their physical brand of basketball, and UK took a while to settle in. Ultimately, the Wildcats never led in the game, and they were never within two possessions of Tennessee over the final 17 minutes.
Rob Dillingham led Kentucky with 35 points, going 14-for-20 on field goals, 6-for-8 from 3-point range and adding four assists. Reed Sheppard had 16 points, six assists and five rebounds. Antonio Reeves scored 21 points.
Zakai Zeigler had 26 points and 13 assists for Tennessee, and Josiah-Jordan James added 26 points.
Things couldn’t have started much worse for Kentucky, which missed four of its first five shots and committed two turnovers in the first 2:06 of the game. Tennessee, meanwhile, hit back-to-back 3-pointers on its first two possessions, scored the first eight points of the night and jumped out to a 13-3 lead before John Calipari called a timeout.
The Vols’ lead grew to 14 points midway through the first half before the Wildcats — with a loud Rupp crowd trying to will them back in it — went on a 12-2 run over a little more than two minutes to cut the UT lead to 38-34, a 3-pointer by Dillingham capping that rally.
Tennessee quickly scored two baskets after that, but the Cats cut the deficit back to four by halftime, going to the locker room down 46-42.
Dillingham had 17 points at the break, hitting 5 of 6 3-point attempts in the first half but leaving the game after picking up his second foul with 1:15 left before halftime.
Sheppard hit a 3-pointer exactly one minute into the second half to cut Tennessee’s lead to 46-45, but the Vols’ advantage was back up to 12 points less than five minutes later. The deficit remained in double digits for most of the second half.
Kentucky was playing without starting point guard D.J. Wagner (ankle) for the second consecutive game. Fellow UK freshman Zvonimir Ivisic was on the team’s bench but also didn’t play Saturday after missing the previous day’s practice with an illness. UK is now 0-3 in games without Wagner.
Both top-10 teams were coming into Saturday night off of home losses, with Kentucky losing 94-91 in overtime to Florida on Wednesday and the Vols falling 63-59 to South Carolina the previous night. UK also lost to South Carolina last week.
Other than the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season, this is the first time in Calipari’s 15 years at Kentucky that the Cats have lost back-to-back games in Rupp Arena. UK lost back-to-back home games twice during that 2020-21 season, when attendance was capped at 3,075 and the Wildcats finished with a 9-16 overall record.
Kentucky’s next game
The Wildcats will go back on the road Tuesday night for a matchup with Vanderbilt, which picked up its first SEC win Saturday afternoon. The Commodores (6-15, 1-7 SEC) beat Missouri 68-61 in a battle of two teams that came into the weekend with zero league victories.
Vanderbilt is the lowest-rated team in the conference by a wide margin. At tipoff of UK’s game Saturday night, the Dores were No. 229 nationally in the KenPom ratings. The second-worst SEC team was Arkansas at No. 131.
The Commodores have actually defeated Kentucky in each of their last two meetings. Vandy upset UK on senior night last season, then beat the Cats in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament the following week. Tuesday’s game is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on SEC Network.
This story was originally published February 3, 2024 at 10:57 PM.
