Five things you need to know from No. 14 Kentucky’s 98-84 loss to No. 25 Mississippi
READ MORE
Game day: No. 25 Ole Miss 98, No. 14 Kentucky 84
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Mississippi in Oxford, Miss.
Expand All
Five things you need to know from No. 14 Kentucky’s 98-84 loss to Chris Beard and No. 25 Mississippi in men’s SEC basketball:
1. There’s no “D” in “Kentucky.” The UK defense is really struggling.
After allowing Arkansas to shoot 64% (16-for-25) in the second half of Saturday night’s 89-79 Razorbacks’ victory, it was more of the same against Mississippi in Oxford.
The Rebels hit 60.6% of their shots in the first half, 20 of 33, then opened the second half by making six of their first eight shot attempts.
UK did not force an Ole Miss turnover until there was only 14:46 left in the game when Jaxson Robinson stole the ball from Sean Pedulla. For the game, Mississippi finished with 24 assists and that one turnover.
Obviously, Kentucky is playing without its best individual defender in injured point guard Lamont Butler and that is a substantial loss.
Still, there’s no excuse for UK being this bad on defense.
With 8:18 left in the first half, the UK Sports Network’s Jack Givens told those listening to game via the radio broadcast “Just not a lot of resistance from Kentucky defensively right now.”
That pretty much summed it up.
2. Another slow start does in UK. For the second time in its past three road games, Kentucky dug a massive halftime deficit.
UK trailed Vanderbilt 41-27 at halftime on Jan. 25. Even though the Wildcats won the second half in Nashville by nine points, 42-33, that was not enough to claim victory in what became a 74-69 loss.
In Oxford on Tuesday night, Kentucky again won the second half by nine points, 53-44.
Problem was, UK had fallen into a mammoth 54-31 halftime hole.
Even as Kentucky played far better in half two, the crater the Wildcats had dug for themselves was too deep from which to escape.
In a league as good as the SEC is in 2024-25, playing only one good half is not going to cut it.
3. Treys again tell UK’s tale. As Kentucky fell to 4-5 in SEC games, one thread continued to run true for the Wildcats: In all nine of UK’s league games to date, the team that has made the most 3-point shots has won the game.
On Tuesday night, Mississippi drained 13 treys to Kentucky’s 10.
In UK’s four SEC wins, the Wildcats made more treys than Florida (14-12), Mississippi State (16-12), Texas A&M (9-7) and Tennessee (12-11).
Conversely, in the Cats’ other SEC losses, Kentucky made fewer treys than Georgia (7-6), Alabama (13-11), Vanderbilt (12-9) and Arkansas (13-10).
4. “Peacock power” still haunting UK. Jaylen Murray scored eight points in 19 minutes for Saint Peter’s when the No. 15 seed Peacocks knocked off No. 2 seed Kentucky 85-79 in overtime in the 2022 NCAA Tournament round of 64.
Now an Ole Miss guard, the 5-foot-11, 165-pound senior from the Bronx, New York, is still taking it to the Cats.
Murray scored 15 points and doled out 10 assists Tuesday night.
The former Saint Peter’s Peacock also hit the crucial bucket of the game for the Rebels.
After Kentucky had cut its 23-point halftime deficit to 11, Murray drained a 3-pointer with 7:14 left to put Mississippi up 81-67 and halt the Wildcats’ momentum.
5. Amari Williams joins an elite list in UK hoops history. In defeat, Kentucky center Amari Williams became only the fourth Wildcats men’s basketball player in school history to record a triple-double.
The 7-foot, 262-pound Williams reached the mark when he hit a cutting Otega Oweh for a dunk with 51 seconds left in the game to reach 10 assists.
A product of Nottingham, England, who transferred to Kentucky from Drexel, Williams finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and the 10 dimes.
The triple-doubles in UK men’s hoops history:
▪ Chris Mills, 19 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists vs. Austin Peay on Dec. 27, 1988.
▪ De’Aaron Fox, 14 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists vs. Arizona State on Nov. 28, 2016.
▪ Isaiah Briscoe, 19 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists vs. Mississippi on Dec. 30, 2016.
▪ Amari Williams, 12 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists vs. Mississippi on Feb. 4, 2025.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 9:22 PM.
