Two late turnovers cost Kentucky basketball against the Vols

The Kentucky basketball team suffered their second straight loss and were swept in their season series against the Tennessee Volunteers.

The Tennessee Volunteers swept the season series with the Kentucky basketball team after defeating UK 61-59. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Quade Green combined for 30 points, but it wasn’t enough as the Cats have now lost back-to-back games in conference and fall to 6-5 in the SEC.

First Half

The Kentucky basketball team started 0-of-7 from the field, then Quade Green knocked down a three-pointer to knot the score a 4. At the under-12 minute TV timeout, the Cats hit a stretch of 4-plus minutes without a field goal.

Another three-pointer by Green brought Big Blue Nation to their feet and put the Cats in front 11-9. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out in 1-of-2 free throws, but after almost 5 minutes without a score, the Vols knocked down an open three-point shot to tie the game once again.

Wenyen Gabriel was getting it done on both ends of the floor. Gabriel was rewarded with a wide open triple after a blocked shot seconds earlier on the defensive end, . The Cats snagged a 22-19 lead after Nick Richards flat out rejected an attempted dunk by Grant Williams. The Wildcats pushed the ball up the court and Green converted the lay up.

After an alley oop in the closing seconds of the first half from Gilgeous-Alexander to Richards, the Vols converted a three-pointer with 12 seconds left in the half. A coast-to-coast, turnaround jumper from Green with 4 seconds remaining left the Cats trailing by just 1 point. The score at halftime was 27-26.

Second Half

Green started for Hamidou Diallo to start the second half. Both teams came out of the half aggressive. Kevin Knox finally notched his first field goal coming out of the timeout. Knox slammed through an alley oop off the in-bounds pass from Gilgeous-Alexander.

The Cats locked down defensively and the Volunteers suffered a 4-plus minute scoreless drought. Kentucky took advantage taking a 38-35 lead. The Vols did not go away and the game was tied at 44 with just over 8 minutes left.

The Volunteers took a 50-46 lead after Williams knocked through two free throws. However, the Tennessee star picked up his fourth foul with just under 5 minutes left. Jarred Vanderbilt stole an errant Volunteer pass and followed up a Quade Green miss at the other end to tie the game once again.

A turnover by Tennessee led to an and-1 attempt for Knox who put the Cats up 53-50. The Vols put in 2 free throws on their next possession, but so did Kentucky and the Wildcats kept the 3 point lead.

A terrible, controversial foul on Vanderbilt late sent Williams to the line for Tennessee. He converted both freebies and tied the game at 56.  SGA out through a teardrop with just over a minute and gave the Kentucky basketball team a 2 point lead. Two straight turnovers by the Cats resulted in two straight buckets for Tennessee and the Vols took a 61-58 lead.