LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — More than a warm front, a stiff drink or a white Christmas, Kentucky’s 72-60 win over Indiana on Saturday night was just what the Wildcats needed.
This column doesn’t require a breakdown, a video session or breathless postgame analysis -- though it could've used a full-screen view of the game from ESPN. The three-word key to this game for Kentucky was this:
Do. Not. Lose.
After trailing by seven at halftime, Kentucky flipped the script with something it hasn’t always had in high-leverage moments this season: grit. The Wildcats turned defense into offense. They got physical. They stopped chucking and started cutting. They wedged, they fought, they clawed.
And Indiana? When Lamar Wilkerson picked up his fourth foul and exited, the Hoosiers unraveled like cheap ribbon. Kentucky turned five straight IU turnovers into a swing that changed everything. A seven-point hole turned into a three-point lead. The Hoosiers were never the same.
“Kentucky turned up the defensive pressure and was able to really get into us and we didn’t respond well enough,” first-year Indiana coach Darian DeVries said. “We turned the ball over too much. And live ball turnovers against them are really hard, because now they have the ball in transition in space. Turnovers and offensive rebounds were the difference in the second half.”
Kentucky didn’t shoot the lights out. It just turned them off. Indiana made just six field goals in the second half. Total.
Kentucky didn’t find offensive rhythm, but didn’t really have to. The Cats scored 23 points off turnovers and 18 on second-chance buckets, bludgeoning Indiana on the boards (14 offensive rebounds) and hustling into extra possessions like they hadn’t seen one in a month.
“We're not a thing of beauty right now,” Pope said. “Actually, that's not true. I actually thought the relentless force was beautiful. But there's not a lot of pretty offense out there. We're still trying to find ourselves. Jaland Lowe certainly helps us.”
The second-half surge came courtesy of birthday boy Mo Dioubate (14 points, 12 rebounds) and transfer Jaland Lowe(13 points), who Pope said injected belief into a team that badly needed some. Both scored nine after halftime. Kamari Williams, Brandon Garrison and Otega Oweh all had key moments in what Pope called “gross, beautiful basketball.”
Dioubate was the spirit animal of the second half. Kentucky had been “ineffective wedging” for offensive rebounds, Pope said. But in this game, Dioubate and Garrison battled like bar bouncers. Kentucky pulled 11 second-half offensive boards, compared to Indiana’s four.
“We wedge to win,” Pope said. “… Without our work on the offensive glass tonight, we were not a pretty offense.”
Indiana, fresh off scoring 113 points against Penn State, managed just 21 in the second half. The Hoosiers shot 27 percent after halftime and went 1-for-10 from 3. DeVries, who had 15 points, couldn’t stem the tide. Wilkerson, the 44-point hero from midweek, scored just 15 and was kept quiet when it mattered.
“I actually love watching them on film,” Pope said. “They're so smart, and they confuse you so much with slips and peels and screens and double screens and slips to flares and they combine all these actions. …, I was really proud of our communication tonight. I thought the guys really were trying to fly around.”
Indiana had the halftime edge — and the crowd murmuring — but Kentucky had the second-half energy. The Wildcats used a 10-0 run to seize the lead, and the body language flipped like a light switch.
“We talked about it all week,” Pope said. “We haven’t been great at responding to adversity. But tonight, we had some dig in, not go away.”
It wasn’t art. But it was effort. And that’s what wins rivalry games when the shots aren’t falling and the critics — including DeMarcus Cousins — are questioning your heart.
Cousins wasn’t wrong. But Saturday night, Pope’s crew gave BBN something everyone sorely needed.
Some signs of life.
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