Five things you need to know from Kentucky’s 77-52 win over Duquesne
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Game day: No. 4 Kentucky 77, Duquesne 52
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Friday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Duquesne in Rupp Arena.
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Five things you need to know from the Kentucky Wildcats’ 77-52 win over the Duquesne Dukes in NCAA men’s college basketball from Rupp Arena at Central Bank Center:
1. Wheeler makes season debut. After missing the season-opening win over Howard due to an injury, veteran Kentucky point guard Sahvir Wheeler made his first appearance of the 2022-23 season Friday night.
It was a stellar showing for Wheeler, too.
Coming off the bench, the 5-foot-9, 180-pound senior from Houston had six points and six assists (vs. two turnovers) at halftime.
The second half yielded more of the same. Wheeler produced a double-double for the game, going for 11 points and 11 assists. He also had six rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot and finished the game with only the two turnovers.
Wheeler led the way on a night when Kentucky had assists on 22 of its 28 made field goals.
For adherents of the plus/minus statistical category, Wheeler was a team-best plus-32 Friday night.
2. Who is this guy? A relatively unheralded recruit by Kentucky standards, freshman big man Ugonna Onyenso continues to impress.
After going for six points, four rebounds and four blocked shots in the 95-63 win over Howard on Monday night, the 6-11, 225-pound product of Nigeria had nine points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in 19 minutes against the Dukes.
Onyenso was plus-19 in the plus/minus category, the third-best figure on the UK team.
Once Oscar Tshiebwe (injury) and Daimion Collins (death in family) return, it will be interesting to see how John Calipri deploys Onyenso.
3. Long-range artillery. Through two games, Kentucky is scalding the nets from behind the three-point arc. The Cats made 11 of 19 treys vs. Duquesne, led by Antonio Reeves’ 4-of-6 and CJ Fredrick’s 4-of-7 on three-point tries.
For the second straight game, Reeves came off the bench to lead Kentucky in scoring with 18. Fredrick had 14 and has been in double figures in both games.
The Cats were 11-of-24 on treys in the opening victory over Howard. For its first two games, Kentucky is shooting 51.2 percent, 22-of-43, on three-point tries.
With outside marksmen of the proficiency of Fredrick and Reeves, no wonder John Calipari is talking about having his team average shooting an unprecedented number of treys in 2022-23.
4. Cats cool off Grant. In Duquesne’s 91-63 pasting of Montana in the Dukes’ season opener, guard Dae Dae Grant had, literally, a perfect shooting game. The transfer from Miami (Ohio) took eight field-goal attempts.
He made them all.
Grant tried six three-pointers.
He made them all
Grant went to the foul line three times.
You guessed it, he hit all three and finished with 25 points.
Suffice to say, the 6-foot-2, 185-pound junior from Lorain, Ohio, found the going a tad tougher against Kentucky’s defensive length and athleticism.
Grant missed his first shot of the 2022-23 season exactly one minute into the game Friday night.
By the next-to-last TV timeout at 6:51 of the second half, Grant was 0-of-7 from the floor, 0-of-3 on treys. He did cash the second of two free throws at 6:51 to at least score, then finally made a layup with 2:59 left in the game to finish with three points on 1-of-8 shooting.
5. Cats extend home win streak. Kentucky has now won its last 21 games in Rupp Arena. The Wildcats last lost in Lexington on Feb. 27, 2021, a 71-67 defeat at the hands of Florida.
In the John Calipari coaching era (since 2009-10), UK has produced seasons with perfect home records six times — 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12; 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2020-21.
This story was originally published November 11, 2022 at 9:00 PM.
