Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s thrilling comeback win over Gonzaga
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Game day: No. 4 Kentucky 90, No. 7 Gonzaga 89 (OT)
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Gonzaga in Seattle.
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Three takeaways from Kentucky basketball’s thrilling 90-89 overtime victory over Gonzaga on Saturday night at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.
1. Call Kentucky the ‘Comeback Cats’
They did it against Duke in Atlanta. Down by nine points (46-37) at the half in the Champions Classic, the Kentucky Wildcats rallied in the second half to give Mark Pope his first statement win as Kentucky’s new coach with a 77-72 triumph.
They did it again against Gonzaga in Seattle. They did it even better, actually. Down by 16 points (50-34) at the half in the “Battle in Seattle,” the Kentucky Wildcats rallied in the second half to first send the game to overtime then come up with a huge win with a 90-89 triumph over the Zags.
Andrew Carr played key roles in both comebacks. The 6-foot-10 transfer from Wake Forest came up huge in the second half against Duke, scoring basket after basket in the paint against the Blue Devils. And Carr repeated that scenario against Gonzaga. Thirteen of his 19 points came after halftime.
It was Carr’s jumper in the lane with exactly one minute left that tied the game at 79 and set the stage for overtime. And it was Carr who grabbed a key rebound and scored with 1:10 remaining in overtime to make it 88-85 Cats.
True, Carr missed two free throws with 4.3 seconds left that would have given Kentucky a three-point lead. But it didn’t matter. UK’s defense did not allow Gonzaga to get off a final shot after the Zags lost the ball in a scramble situation trying to get it past midcourt.
2. Jaxson Robinson stepped up in a new spot
Kentucky entered the game without starting point guard Lamont Butler, out with an ankle injury. Then with 8:41 left in the game, Butler’s replacement, point guard Kerr Kriisa left the game with cramps. He also left with Kentucky trailing 65-59.
That meant the 6-foot-6 Jaxson Robinson was pressed into service at point guard. It’s a position that he’s not accustomed to playing and reportedly has told Pope he’s not crazy about playing. But you couldn’t tell that by the way the BYU transfer played down the stretch.
With Robinson running the offense, UK outscored Gonzaga 20-14 over the final 7:33 of regulation. A Robinson bucket pulled UK to within 69-67 of the Zags with 5:20 left. It was a Robinson basket from the left wing with 3:41 remaining that cut Gonzaga’s lead to 74-71. And it was a Robinson jumper from the circle with 1:30 remaining that made it 78-77 Zags.
Then in overtime, with Kentucky clinging to an 88-86 lead, it was Robinson who nearly lost the ball, recovered it, drove to the left wing and hit a floater over the Gonzaga defense with 14.5 seconds left to push Kentucky’s lead out to four points.
The Oklahoma native finished with 18 points, hitting 7 of 15 shots, including 2 of 5 from 3-point range. More impressively, Robinson dished five assists and did not turn the ball over in his 36 minutes on the floor.
3. Mark Pope showed his coaching versatility
All through John Calipari’s 15 years as Kentucky coach, there were times when the Big Blue Nation called for Cal’s Cats to play zone. For the most part, the head coach refused. Calipari was/is a firm believer in playing man-to-man defense. To be fair, that philosophy has helped Calipari to a Hall of Fame career.
However, Pope is not so rigid in his thinking. After Gonzaga shot 54 percent from the floor in the first half on the way to scoring 50 points, Pope switched up his defenses in the second half. At times, he played a 1-3-1 zone defense. At times, he played a 2-3 zone defense. At times, his team opened the possession in a zone before switching back to a man-to-man after Gonzaga’s first frontcourt pass.
The switching appeared to knock Gonzaga a bit off balance. The Zags shot just 39 percent the second half. They missed all nine of their 3-point shots in the second half and finished just 6-of-27 shooting for 22.2 percent from 3-point range for the game.
After being credited with seven assists in the first half, Gonzaga point guard Ryan Nembhard was held to three in the second. After scoring 18 points in the first half, Gonzaga center Graham Ike was held to 10 points over the final 25 minutes. Ike was 6-of-9 from the floor in the first half and 3-of-7 in the second.
It was one reason why Kentucky became the first team in 176 games to beat Gonzaga when the Zags enjoyed a double-digit lead at halftime.
This story was originally published December 8, 2024 at 1:17 AM.
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