Shorthanded Kentucky uses double-dose of Bluegrass bombers to drop Tennessee, 75-64

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Tennessee has come to Lexington six times as a Top 5 team. Five times, it has left with a loss. Just when Kentucky looked to be on the ropes Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, with Lamont Butler headed to the locker room and out of the game, Koby Brea answered back with a couple of step-backs.

Two step-back daggers from Brea and inspired play by Kentucky-bred freshmen Trent Noah and Travis Perry sent a Tennessee team seeking revenge back to Knoxville still looking for answers. Kentucky prevailed 75-64.

"It was really great to be a part of this epic, epic game tonight," Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. "It just was awesome. I'm so proud of our guys. We have guys that just want to fight and compete and and we got ballers, right? They just want to be ballers, man. They just want to come play. And we have guys step up and make huge plays. We had some of the young guys step up and make huge plays. Really, really proud of our guys, really happy and just grateful beyond belief that we get to be on this magical, incredible journey that you only get to do at the University of Kentucky."

Tennessee led 60-58 with 4:50 left, then Brea stepped back and swished a three, Amari Williams scored on a jumper, and Noah cut to the basket and was fouled, making both free throws to complete a 7-0 run that put Kentucky in control. When Brea stepped back to hit another three with 2:08 left, Kentucky’s lead went back to six, and the Wildcats had the late momentum.

Noah, the Harlan, Ky., sharpshooter who did not play a minute in Kentucky’s first five SEC games, came off the bench to score 11 points, including 3-for-4 shooting from three-point range. Perry, Kentucky's all-time leading high school scorer at at Lyon County, made 2 of 3 from beyond the arc and finished with eight.

"How fun is that?" Pope said. "How about a big, massive shout out for Eastern Kentucky showing up today, huh? Like (Noah) is just really special. We can't, you know, we've got the Mountain Mamba. We've got the holler baller, which may be my favorite. And it's, you know, like I give all the credit to to Trent and his family and his community where he grew up, because this is what he is. He comes every single day, and he gets no love from us. He's not a featured guy in practice. He's not a he's not getting the media attention. He's not he's not gifted anything. . . . I say this all the time, but like his clear heart, you know, an incredible focus. He's like a sponge learning. And when you do that every single day, that's the part that people don't see. They just see tonight. But like, his journey to get to tonight was pretty special."

The result was Kentucky’s seventh win of the season against a team ranked in the Top 15 – a new program record for a regular season. It improved Kentucky to 9-1 in Quad 1 games. And against a Tennessee defense that is No. 1 in the nation against three-pointers, Kentucky made 12 of 24 for a second straight meeting, outscoring the Vols 36-9 from beyond the arc.

The win was all the more difficult because Kentucky was playing without starting guard Jaxson Robinson, who sat with an injury.

Butler was effective in his time, with 6 points and 4 assists in 22 minutes, but now his future availability is in doubt. He left the game after hitting his left arm going for a loose ball with 8:40 left. He returned with just under four minutes to play wearing a warm-up jacket. When teammates asked him if he would return, he shook his head.

"In the moment. I was just feeling for Lamont," Pope said. "We feel this all the time, we don't have that much time left, and he's been so incredible, such a winner and such a leader. And it's just like, I just want him so badly be able to play."

Pope didn't have any insight into how long Butler might be sidelined, or Robinson.

But without Butler, Kentucky extended its lead. The Wildcats allowed just one field goal and four points in the game’s final 4:20, and they made all six of their field goal attempts from the six-minute mark to the end of the game. They outscored Tennessee 20-6 in the game’s final six minutes, with six of those points coming from Brea and five from Otega Oweh, who finished with 13 points to run his total number of games in double-figures this season to 24.

Ansley Almonor, who hit a pair of big corner three-pointers, finished with 13 points and Brea added 11. Zakai Zielger finished with 17 to lead Tennessee.

"Way too many defensive breakdowns on our part," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "Give Kentucky credit, they did it, but we had way too many defensive breakdowns on things that you can't do there at the end of the game. And then I thought offensively, we had a few guys that got too emotional, didn't make really good decisions on the offensive end. But I don't want to say anything to take away from Kentucky. Mark's done a great job with this group, and we were right where we needed to be, and didn't make enough winning plays on either end of the court."

Next up for Kentucky (16-7, 6-5), a road test at Texas on Saturday.