Five things you need to know from No. 22 Kentucky’s 75-63 win over Ole Miss
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Game day: No. 22 Kentucky 75, Mississippi 63
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Mississippi in Rupp Arena.
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Five things you need to know from No. 22 Kentucky’s 75-63 win over Mississippi in men’s SEC basketball at Rupp Arena:
1. Cats FINALLY have full roster available. With the return of Tre Mitchell after missing two games due to back problems, Kentucky had its entire allotment of scholarship players available for the first time in the 2023-24 season in the 24th game of the year.
John Calipari started Justin Edwards, Mitchell, Ugonna Onyenso, Antonio Reeves and D.J. Wagner. Going back to the early-season rotation, freshmen guards Rob Dillingham and Reed Sheppard were the first substitutes into the game, checking in with 16:53 left in the first half.
On his pregame radio interview with the UK Sports Network’s Tom Leach, Calipari indicated that, in conjunction with having his entire roster available, he anticipated shortening the Kentucky rotation.
UK played nine players in the win over Ole Miss, with Adou Thiero and Aaron Bradshaw also coming off the bench to play.
Other than uncharacteristic turnover problems (15), Kentucky played one of its more complete games of the 2023-24 season in its first time will its full roster available.
Offensively, the balanced Cats got 15 points from Reeves, 13 from Sheppard, 12 from Edwards, 10 from Dillingham and eight from Onyenso. Defensively, UK appeared to “win” more 1-on-1 matchups than has been customary to date in a season of struggles getting stops.
Edwards had 11 points at halftime and has now played three solid-to-good games in a row as he tries to elevate down the stretch what has been an uneven freshman season.
Whether UK is going to have its full roster going forward is unclear. Mitchell, who had five points, five rebounds and two assists in his return to action, left the game with 16:13 left in the second half holding his left shoulder. He did not return.
2. Onyenso’s “block party.” Ugonna Onyenso, Kentucky’s 7-foot, 247-pound sophomore center, gave the Wildcats some much-needed rim protection Tuesday night.
The native of Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria, set a Rupp Arena record for a Kentucky player by blocking 10 shots.
Onyenso had eight blocks by halftime and appeared in position to threaten Nerlens Noel’s UK school record for blocks in a single game of 12, which was set in an 87-74 victory at Ole Miss on Jan. 29, 2013.
However, foul trouble helped limit Onyenso to two second-half blocks.
3. Reeves closing in on 1,000 as a Cat. Kentucky super-senior guard Antonio Reeves continues to move toward UK’s 1,000-points club. The 6-foot-6, 195-pound Chicago product scored a team-high 15 points vs. Ole Miss and now has 954 points in his two seasons rocking Kentucky blue.
Prior to arriving at UK, Reeves scored 1,195 points in three seasons (2019-22) playing at Illinois State.
Reeves is seeking to become the eighth player to score at least 1,000 points for Kentucky while playing only two seasons for the Wildcats, joining: Bill Spivey, 1,213 career points; Oscar Tshiebwe, 1,117; Rex Chapman, 1,073; Terrence Jones, 1,064; Bob Burrow, 1,023; Doron Lamb, 1,018; and Ron Mercer, 1,013.
4. Cats avert more negative history. Kentucky’s win snapped a three-game home losing streak. It was the first time since Rupp Arena opened in 1976-77 that UK had lost three straight in the venue.
The Wildcats’ victory kept Kentucky from compiling its first four-game home losing skid since coach Basil Hayden’s 1926-27 Wildcats lost their final four home games of the season, to Washington & Lee, West Virginia, Mississippi and Tennessee, at Alumni Gym en route to a 3-13 record.
5. Cats keep Beard in the winless column. Kentucky’s victory makes Chris Beard 0-1 vs. UK as Ole Miss head man and 0-2 overall against the Wildcats. While at Texas Tech in 2019-20, Beard’s Red Raiders lost to Kentucky 76-74 in overtime in Lubbock, Texas, as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
Beard and LSU’s Matt McMahon (0-1) remain the only current SEC head men who have never beaten the Wildcats. McMahon will get his second chance to do so when Kentucky visits Baton Rouge on Feb. 21.
This story was originally published February 13, 2024 at 11:29 PM.
