Terrence Jones dazzles and wills Wildcats to 76-64 win over pesky Sooners

With a team as young as Kentucky, there are plenty of lessons to be learned over the course of the basketball season.  And hopefully for the Wildcat’s they take tonights game versus the Oklahoma Sooners as a learning opportunity before they take the court at 9:30PM tomorrow night in the Maui Invitational. Kentucky passed this test tonight, by the tune of 76-64 over the Sooners, but it was the first time this season they passed with a “C” grade rather than an “A”.   And for the most part, I think it’s good that Kentucky got tested a bit tonight.  Hopefully they take it as a learning tool for the rest of this tournament.

The Wildcats started as if they were going to pass this test with another superior grades, hitting their first five shots of the game.  Kentucky expounded on their early solid play and built the lead to 21-8 on a Doron Lamb three pointer barely five minutes into the game.  The Sooners were not ready to roll over though and went on a run of their own, cutting the score to 21-16.  Another Lamb three pointer a few minutes later put Kentucky back up 26-18 and the two teams traded baskets for a while.  Kentucky locked down defensively in the last few minutes of the first half as UK went in ahead at halftime up 42-28.  So far they had responded to every Sooner rally and the closest Oklahoma got was 8 the rest of the first half.

Terrence Jones started scoring at will in the second half and despite a valiant performance by the Sooner’s Cade Davis, Kentucky led 59-41 with about 12:00 remaining while visions of playing time crept through Jarrod Polson’s head.  Things got sloppy for Kentucky over the next four minutes or so and the Sooners got physical and started to attack the basket and get uncontested shots.  Over that time, Oklahoma crept back into the game, cutting the lead to 59-50.  Kentucky responded and pushed the lead back to 13 as Terrence Jones made his presence known on both ends of the court.  Cade Davis had a last rally and led one last Sooner charge cutting the lead to 68-62, but Jones blocked another Sooner shot and dunked the ball on the other end from a nice feed from Liggins.  And it was all over except for the three throws.

Terrence Jones started the whole “will he be a one and doner” talk with this game, and he was the best player on the court, scoring 29 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 assists and two steals.  Whenever Kentucky needed a key defensive stop, it was Jones that came up big in the clutch.  Or when they needed a big basket … ditto.  DeAndre Liggins had another very solid night, scoring 12 points, grabbing 5 boards, dishing out four assists and getting 3 steals.  Liggins is truly the heart and hustle of this team and you can tell that he gets as big of a kick about diving on the floor and coming up with a loose ball than he does scoring.  And some of these Liggins drives to the basket are a thing of beauty.  Doron Lamb had another strong game with 12 points.  I really like the energy and the scoring that he brings off the court and he also acts as the backup PG when Knight is out of the game.

Speaking of Knight, he was a bit off tonight, hitting just 4-15 from the field and 2-8 from three pointers.  Every scorer has an off night every now and then but Knight still had 13 points.  I would not be too worried about him.  And it was disappointing to see Darius Miller take a back seat to everyone else tonight.  Even though he played 26 minutes, I hardly remember seeing him on the court and he finished with just 5 points and four fouls.

And now we come to those “lessons” that Kentucky has to learn from.  There were three things I saw that were kind of troubling tonight and if these things pop up in the next two games, it could be a long stay in Maui.  Not to nitpick a win, but these things must be resolved:

1. Kentucky’s transition defense was horrid tonight.  On too many occasions, Oklahoma got an easy basket in transition after a Kentucky score simply because Kentucky simply was not back and ready to play defense.  And lapses like that is what leads to losses.  Also on many occasions, Oklahoma was allowed to attack the basket at will, resulting in easy baskets.  Simply put, this must get better.
2. Josh Harrellson and Eloy Vargas combined for 4 points and 7 rebounds and for Kentucky to be the team they want to be, they guys have to combine for about 12 points and 10 boards a night.  When Oklahoma got physical, these guys disappeared tonight.  We know they are capable of playing better than they have been on the season.  They need to develop a mean streak and quit letting smaller guys rebound on them. 
3. Free throw shooting must approve.  After tonight’s game, Kentucky is shooting 53.8% from the line on the season.  Stat guru Corey Price tells me that the wost UK team from the line ever was the 1939-1940 team which shot 54.3% from the line.  I know that it is just three games, but as of now, this is the worst free throw shooting team ever at Kentucky.  Don’t get mad at me for reporting the numbers. 

All in all, I think this turned into more of a negative post than I intended.  I am thrilled that Kentucky is 3-0 but I know that the road gets rougher after tonight and that Oklahoma exposed some aspects of the UK game tonight.   The good thing is that this is a tournament and there is another game just 24 hours later so Kentucky can not dwell on what was done wrong tonight.    Kentucky does have a built in advantage  as they have about 25 hours to recoup from this game while their opponent only has about 16 hours.  Let’s hope they make the most of it.

For complete game stats, go here.

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