Kentucky Whips Pelphrey's Tennessee Tech 104-54 on Emotional Thanksgiving Eve
- KySportsStyle.com
- 24 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Jamie H. Vaught
KySportsStyle.com Magazine
With four "Unforgettable" standouts – Sean Woods, Richie Farmer, Deron Feldhaus and John Pelphrey -- from UK’s 1992 team on hand at Rupp Arena Wednesday night, the Wildcats, after a very slow start, roared to a 104-54 victory over Pelphrey-coached Tennessee Tech team.
While his Golden Eagles lost by a 50-point margin – the largest-ever victory for Kentucky under head coach Mark Pope – Pelphrey, now 57, still has lots of warm memories during his early days at Rupp Arena. As you'll recall, the 6-foot-7 Pelphrey and his senior teammates helped coach Rick Pitino’s Wildcats reach the Elite Eight after a two-year postseason ban to NCAA probation.
The loss dropped Pelphrey’s head coaching record to 0-3 against the Cats at Rupp Arena, including four years at Arkansas.
An emotional Pelphrey, who is now in his seventh year at the Cookeville school, said the No. 19 Wildcats "are good. Rupp Arena is great. Very, very humbled to have the chance to experience the things I have experienced here. It is emotional, it really is. I wanted to get these guys up here early so that we wouldn’t lose to the building – this cathedral, this shrine of college basketball. I thought it worked. I thought our guys came out very comfortable and confident. We played the best 15-16 minutes we have played all year on both ends of the floor."
Tennessee Tech enjoyed a 25-23 lead at the 7:18 mark in the first half before UK rallied with a 43-28 lead at the intermission.
Pelphrey, who earned Kentucky’s Mr. Basketball Honors in 1987 while at Paintsville High School, believes Coach Pope, a member of Kentucky's 1996 national championship team, is the right fit for UK.
"I think we are super proud of Mark and I cannot tell you how it feels to have one of our own here," said the former All-SEC performer. "I love our past and appreciative that it is respected and revered. To have a national championship guy in that seat, somebody that understands the respect that this place deserves. I am so happy that he is here. This is a place that respects its past so much so that it hopefully it inspires the future. I was one of those guys. I watched guys do it so well that I wanted to do it someday.
"The team is deep. The team is skilled. I think they have a tremendous upside. They will not be the same team 30 days from now, 60 days from now. They are going to continue to get better and better and better. I think they can play different ways. Clearly they are still trying to find themselves. Tonight they didn’t have one of their toughest guys out there. The Cats are going to have a good year.”
As expected, Jaland Lowe, Mo Dioubate and Jayden Quaintance missed the game because of injury.
Against Tennessee Tech, Kentucky continued to have the scoring balance. In the previous six games, the Wildcats have had six different leading scorers. UK featured five players who scored in double figures Wednesday night.
Leading the Cats' scoring attack were Otega Oweh, Denzel Aberdeen and Trent Noah, all with 16 points. Aberdeen hit 4 of 6 three-pointers, while Noah made 4 of 5 three-point field goals.
On Pelphrey, Noah said, "It was cool getting to compete with him. He was a heck of a player. He’s got his name in the rafters and stuff like that."
Malachi Moreno added 13 points and a career-high 11 rebounds, his second double-double of the season, while blocking two shots.
Moreno thought it was cool to see two seldom-used backup players, Walker Horn and Zach Towe, in action and scoring points. Horn made a three-pointer with 1:22 remaining.
“I mean if you didn’t see our reactions, you should go look," smiled Moreno. "It was great to actually see. Walker and Zach mean a lot to our team. Walker is almost like a leader on the team because he’s been here. He is just a voice, he understands what he has to do and then he comes in with a great mindset and works every day. Zach is the same deal. He’s a senior and he is always ready to work. He is ready to hoop. They both just come in and make us better. Seeing them out there and getting those buckets makes me very proud."
Kentucky had 27 season-high-tying assists.
The next game for the Wildcats, 5-2, is Tuesday night when they host No. 16 North Carolina. The 9:30 pm ET contest will be shown on ESPN.
