Instant analysis: Who’s up, who’s down after UK’s 76-55 win over Mississippi St.
Instant analysis from No. 8 Kentucky’s 76-55 win over No. 22 Mississippi State:
How the game was won
PJ Washington scored 21 points, Tyler Herro 18 and Kentucky held Mississippi State — a 38.3 percent three-point-shooting team entering the game — to 3-of-20 treys as the Wildcats scored their fifth straight win.
Game balls
1. UK post players. PJ Washington gave UK offense (see above); Reid Travis (12 rebounds) worked the glass. It was an effective combination.
2. Tyler Herro. Hit three of three treys and five of five free throws in a highly efficient offensive turn.
3. Ashton Hagans. The Kentucky freshman point guard — five points, nine assists, two steals — continues to do a pretty nice Rajon Rondo homage.
What to worry about
1. Killer instinct? UK had a chance to blow out cold-shooting Mississippi State in the first half. Instead, the Cats let the Bulldogs “hang around” and found themselves in a two-point game, 41-39, with 13:36 left.
Of course, UK then ended the game on a 35-16 run.
2. Attendance? For a 7 p.m. tip of an SEC game matching two Top 25 teams, there sure were a lot of empty seats in Rupp Arena. The announced attendance was 21,449.
Key number(s)
12 and 0. With John Calipari as coach, Kentucky is now 12-0 vs. Mississippi State. MSU’s most recent victory over the Wildcats came on Feb. 3, 2009, when Coach Rick Stansbury’s Bulldogs beat Billy Gillispie’s Wildcats 66-57 before 21,940 fans in Rupp Arena.
The Cat-mosphere
1. The acoUstiKats, the UK a cappella group, continued the 2018-19 Rupp Arena trend of University of Kentucky students hitting the national anthem out of the park.
2. Mississippi State senior big man Aric Holman, one of the stars of Owensboro’s 2015 Boys’ Sweet Sixteen championship team, got a nice ovation before his final college game in Rupp Arena.
Holman then proceeded to have a quiet night in his home state — no points, two rebounds in 20 minutes.
3. After missing Kentucky’s two games last week due to a medical procedure, former UK star Mike Pratt was back in his normal role as color analyst on the Wildcats radio network.
Up next
No. 8 Kentucky (15-3, 5-1 SEC) will play host to No. 9 Kansas (16-3, 5-2 Big 12) in Rupp Arena at 6 p.m. Saturday in the marquee matchup of the 2019 SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
Coach Bill Self’s Jayhawks avenged an earlier loss by defeating Iowa State 80-76 Monday night in Lawrence behind 29 points and 15 rebounds from Memphis transfer Dedric Lawson.
Kentucky is 2-3 all-time in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge and is 0-2 vs. Kansas in the event.
Know your foe
1. Kentucky leads the all-time series with Kansas 22-9, but the Jayhawks are 6-3 vs. the Wildcats with Bill Self as head coach and have beaten UK three straight.
2. All three of the Jayhawks’ losses in 2018-19 have come in true road games — 80-76 at Arizona State; 77-60 at Iowa State; and 65-64 at West Virginia. KU is 1-3 overall on the road.
3. Kansas suffered a major personnel loss when 7-foot center Udoka Azubuike was lost for the season after tearing ligaments in his right hand during a practice. In the nine games he played, Azubuike averaged 13.4 points and 6.8 rebounds.
Last season, when KU beat UK 65-61 in the Champions Classic in Chicago, Azubuike had 13 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
This story was originally published January 22, 2019 at 9:09 PM.
