Kentucky basketball got the win, got the points, and eventually got the game to look how it was supposed to look.
It just took a minute.
This had all the markings of a 1 p.m. Tuesday tip right before Christmas Eve — a slow start, weird rhythm, and an underdog that refused to play the “polite buy-game” role. Bellarmine hung around long enough to make Kentucky actually earn it, but once the Wildcats started making threes in bunches, the math stopped working for the Knights.
Kentucky pulled away for a 99-85 win behind a flamethrower performance from Kam Williams and a brutally efficient afternoon from Mouhamed Dioubate.
Kam Williams gave Kentucky basketball the missing ingredient
Kentucky has been searching for a consistent perimeter threat to emerge, and Williams picked a great day to stop the search.
He finished with 26 points and buried 8 of his 10 attempts from deep. That’s not “nice shooting.” That’s a game that bends a defense, especially when Kentucky already has multiple drivers and cutters hunting gaps.
As a team, Kentucky shot 16-for-30 from three (53%) and 59% overall (33-for-56). When you shoot like that, a lot of other issues get covered up.
Mouhamed Dioubate was a bully in the best way
Williams was the headliner, but Dioubate was the steady force that kept Kentucky from ever losing control.
He posted 20 points on 9-for-11 shooting, added five rebounds, and swatted three shots. That’s the kind of production that shows up when a player is locked in regardless of the vibe of the game.
Kentucky didn’t always look sharp early, but Dioubate played like the afternoon mattered.
Kentucky basketball shared the ball and it showed in the box score
This is where Kentucky quietly did a lot of good things even when the start felt sleepy.
The Wildcats piled up 24 assists, and Otega Oweh ran passing clinic with 10 assists to go with eight rebounds in a near triple-double. Jasper Johnson chipped in seven assists off the bench, and Denzel Aberdeen gave Kentucky a second wave of shot-making with 14 points and four threes.
Kentucky didn’t just make shots, it generated shots. That matters heading into tougher games where you don’t get to shoot 59% and call it a day.
Bellarmine made Kentucky work for it
Bellarmine deserves credit. The Knights shot 52% (26-for-50) and got to the line 30 times, making 26 of them. Jack Karasinski led the way with 24 points on 6-for-9 shooting and 9-for-10 at the stripe, while Brian Waddell had 16 and Michael Wilson Jr. added 16 off the bench.
That free-throw volume is the reason the game stayed in the “annoying” zone longer than Kentucky probably wanted.
But the difference was simple: Kentucky’s threes were a tidal wave, and the Wildcats lived with the lead most of the day (leading for 90% of the game, with a largest lead of 18).
Kentucky didn’t play a perfect, clean, sharp December game.
It played a winning one, and when Kam Williams shoots like that, the rest starts to look a lot easier.