The opening minutes tonight were pretty emblematic of Kentucky’s entire season.
South Carolina came out banging in four early threes. On the other end, Otega Oweh drove into the lane and simply lost the ball out of bounds. That pretty much told you where things were headed.
I don’t know why Mark Pope keeps insisting on turning Andrija Jelavić into a stretch four, because he’s just not that guy. Put him on the block and let the young man go to work. Instead, he opened the game 0-for-3 on wide-open threes, and yet Kentucky kept putting him in those same spots.
And if you were expecting a desperate, locked-in start from a team fighting for its season, you don’t know this team very well.
Kentucky quickly found itself down 14-9, shooting 4-for-15 with four turnovers and a missed dunk, with 12 minutes still to play in the half. In fact, the Cats wouldn’t find their first lead until a pair of back-to-back threes from Denzel Aberdeen sparked a 10-0 run and pushed Kentucky ahead 19-15 with just under eight minutes to go.
The first half wasn’t good basketball from either side. Kentucky somehow led 28-21 at the break despite both teams looking disjointed. Combined, the Cats and Gamecocks were just 18-for-59 from the floor and 8-for-32 from deep.
Kentucky committed nine turnovers in the opening half, but South Carolina’s shooting was so poor it couldn’t fully capitalize. It was the second-lowest first-half scoring output the Gamecocks have had all season.
The Cats weren’t much better. Outside of Aberdeen’s 11 points, the rest of the roster combined for just 18.
Second-half struggles and an anxious finish
South Carolina opened the second half the same way it started the game, red hot. A 7-0 run tied things up before Jelavić finally knocked down his first three of the night, then followed it with a nice finish off a pass from Oweh. He finished with a season-high 11.
Kentucky, meanwhile, still couldn’t get out of its own way offensively. Over the first eight minutes of the second half, the Cats shot just 4-for-14 and allowed South Carolina to hang around in a game it had no business being in. The turnovers kept piling up, too, four more in the first ten minutes.
The Gamecocks tied it at 48 with just over eight minutes to play, forcing Pope into an early timeout. Out of the break, Oweh finally broke through with just his fourth point of the night, and Malachi Moreno came up with a steal that led to two made free throws to push the lead back to four.
Neither team could find any rhythm. Buckets came in short bursts, followed by long stretches of nothing. Kentucky managed a small surge to grab a 59-52 lead after a Collin Chandler dunk, Kentucky’s 18th fast-break point of the night. But we've been here before. Could Kentucky close this time?
Collin Chandler strikes again
With 3:30 to go, South Carolina went to the line and knocked down both free throws. Oweh missed a layup on the other end. Then Kentucky completely lost Mike Sharavjamts, who buried an open three to cut the lead right back to two.
And suddenly, once again, nothing felt safe.
Malachi Moreno made a tough inside shot, and Mo Dioubate came up huge with a block of Meechie Johnson. Captain Clutch Collin Chandler nails a 3 to get the lead right back up to 7.
The forced South Carolina into the foul game, and with 1:10 to go, Kentucky finally put away the Gamecocks.
It wasn't easy. And it definitely wasn't pretty, but Kentucky survives a slop-fest 72-63.