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Kentucky has sleep-walked through the past several weeks with a 3-5 record going into Wednesday night’s SEC battle with Vanderbilt at Rupp Arena.
That stretch included Saturday night’s stunning and extremely disappointing loss at Texas, which is a meager 5-8 in the league.
The 17th-ranked Wildcats needed a bounce-back win in the worst way and got one in front of their home crowd, turning up the defense a few notches and pulling away from a 1-point halftime lead for an 82-61 victory over the Commodores. All at once, Kentucky got back in the win column and avenged another one of those losses during this recent stretch, a 74-69 loss to Vandy in Nashville on Jan. 25 that came complete with a court-storming from the Commodore fans.
On Wednesday night, it was back to business for Mark Pope’s struggling team, which improved to 18-8 overall and snuck back over .500 in the SEC at 7-6. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt fell to 17-9 overall and 5-8 in the incredibly rugged SEC.
The Wildcats’ offense ran smoothly as ever. They shot 58% from the field, made 11 of 27 from 3-point land and didn’t miss a free throw all night, making all 13 attempts. Otega Oweh led a balanced attack with 20 points and 7 rebounds, Amari Williams added 17 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocks, Koby Brea had 12 points, and Andrew Carr chipped in with 11 points.
Kentucky’s defense stiffened up during that second half, holding Vandy to 21 points in the final 20 minutes. The Commodores shot just 40% overall and 20% from 3-point territory. They were led by Devin McGlockton’s 14 points and 10 rebounds.
The Wildcats will visit No. 4 Alabama on Saturday night in another revenge game that started their midseason slide, while Vandy tries to snap its 3-game losing streak on Saturday at home against No. 24 Ole Miss.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
