Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 80-62 blowout win over Kansas
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Game day: Kentucky 80, Kansas 62
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge game between Kentucky and Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan.
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Five things you need to know from the No. 12 Kentucky Wildcats’ 80-62 win over the No. 5 Kansas Jayhawks in the Big 12/SEC Challenge at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan.:
1. Keion Brooks plays the game of his life. Often overlooked this year amid the focus on Oscar Tshiebwe and Kentucky’s strong backcourt, Brooks had the performance of his UK career Saturday night on a massively large stage.
The 6-foot-7, 210-pound junior had a career-high 27 points and also added eight rebounds for Kentucky — and those gaudy numbers don’t fully tell the story of how well Brooks played.
From the 17:24 mark of the second half until 6:27 was left in the game, Brooks scored 15 straight points for UK.
That was important because Kansas — down 51-31 at halftime — had fleetingly altered the momentum of the game and pulled within 14 points after Bill Self’s switched the Jayhawks to a 2-3 zone from their normal man-to-man.
With the Cats struggling to solve the zone, Brooks made himself a one-man zone breaker, finding a hole in the middle of the defense and repeatedly either scoring or getting fouled.
Brooks wasn’t the only UK power forward who came up huge, either.
Backup Jacob Toppin chipped in 11 points and two boards.
Suffice to say, when Kentucky gets 38 points and 10 rebounds from the four position, the Cats are going to be incredibly hard to deal with.
2. Advantage, Tshiebwe. Kentucky-Kansas was a showdown of players — Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe and Ochai Agbaji of Kansas — being mentioned in the National Player of the Year race.
In that battle, Tshiebwe was the decisive victor.
The 6-5 Agbaji entered the game having scored 29 and 37 points in KU’s prior two games, but Kentucky held him to 13 on 4-for-14 shooting.
When UK was building an insurmountable lead on Kansas in the first half, Agbaji was held to three points on 1-for-6 shooting.
Meanwhile, the 6-9, 255-pound Tshiebwe was simply turning in another day of work. Tshiebwe finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds.
It was Tshiebwe’s 15th double-double in 21 games and his eighth straight double-digit rebounding game.
3. A signature victory for the Cats. The blowout win over the No. 5 Jayhawks was UK’s second over a ranked foe this season, joining the 107-79 rout of then-No. 22 Tennessee Jan. 15.
UK is now 2-3 against opponents ranked in the AP Top 25 in 2021-22.
The victory over No. 5 Kansas on its home floor was Kentucky’s first win against a top-5 team in a true road game since a 58-50 victory over then-No. 4 Louisville at the KFC Yum Center on Dec. 27, 2014.
In Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday night, Kentucky looked every bit like a team capable of making a Final Four run.
It’s hard to imagine many teams can engage UK in an uptempo game and prevail.
4. Cats holding firm in all-time wins. Kentucky entered the season with a four-victory advantage, 2,327-2,323, over Kansas in the all-time men’s college hoops wins standings.
With the victory in Allen Fieldhouse, UK has restored its lead over KU to four games: 1. Kentucky 2,344; 2. Kansas 2,340.
Leaving Lawrence with its four-win lead back, UK now has more than a fighting chance to get out out of the 2021-22 season with its status as the all-time wins leader intact.
5. SEC wins Big 12/SEC Challenge. Kentucky’s decisive win at Kansas clinched victory for the Southeastern Conference in its annual hoops challenge with the Big 12.
Besides UK, other SEC wins came from: Arkansas beat West Virginia 77-68. No. 1 Auburn pasted Oklahoma 86-68. Alabama upset No. 4 and defending national champion Baylor 87-78. Mississippi beat Kansas State 67-56. Florida beat Oklahoma State 81-72.
Big 12 wins: TCU upset No. 19 LSU 77-68. No. 23 Iowa State blew out Missouri 67-50. Texas Tech annihilated Mississippi State 76-50.
The SEC had a 6-3 advantage in The Challenge, which made the result of Tennessee at Texas irrelevant to the overall outcome.
Showing the growth in SEC hoops prowess in recent years, the Southeastern Conference has now prevailed three times and tied once in the past five Big 12/SEC Challenges.
This story was originally published January 29, 2022 at 8:15 PM.
