McBride Haunts Former Team as No. 23 UK Stops JMU 89-80
By Jamie H. Vaught
KySportsStyle.com Magazine
Notes and observations from Friday night's Kentucky-James Madison basketball game at Rupp Arena:
--The No. 23 Wildcats featured five players, including three from the bench, who scored in double figures in an 89-80 victory over JMU. And they did it without much help from the "M&Ms"—Milan Momcilovic and Malachi Moreno.
While the star duo of Momcilovic and Moreno only had seven and eight points, respectively, Alex Wilkins and Zoom Diallo led the team with 16 points each. Justin McBride, who starred at JMU last year, added 13 points while hitting 3 of 4 from three-point range. Mason Williams and Braydon Hawthorne chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively.
The 6-foot-8 McBride also snatched a game-high eight rebounds, all on the defensive end, while Moreno grabbed seven boards.
With the contest tied at 56, Wilkins, McBride, and 7-footer Ousmane N'Diaye hit consecutive 3-pointers to give UK a 65-56 lead. Kentucky’s largest lead of the night was 14 points at 85-71.
The Wildcats shot 50.8% from the field.
--It was a memorable performance for McBride, who was playing against his former teammates.
"It is a special game because he loves coach (Preston) Spradlin so much," UK coach Mark Pope said. "They have a beautiful relationship because he had such a great experience at James Madison. Also, he’s taken on the challenge of coming here. All of those come into play. I thought he was terrific tonight.
"Our whole team needs him to rebound. We’ve talked about that every day for the last three months. And he comes up tonight and grabs eight huge rebounds playing the 5 a lot of minutes. He shot the ball well, and he was really aggressive. I thought he was terrific tonight."
Spradlin, a Kentucky native who worked as an assistant at UK several years ago, added, “Man, I wish he (McBride) had made more 3s playing for me like he did tonight. I’m so proud of him. I thought he played really well. I thought defensively he really challenged himself. That was something that we spent a lot of time working on with him, and I think he’s answered that call, being able to communicate and stay in front of the ball, and I thought he did a nice job of that tonight.
"He’s proven that he can be on the court with other really good players and play within the system that Mark’s put in place. That’s not an easy thing to do for a guy that comes from a team where he gets to shoot a lot of balls and he has an incredibly high usage rate and gets a lot of play calls for him, so I thought he’s doing a great job with that, and I’m happy for him.”
--It was great to see UK women's basketball coach and JMU graduate Kenny Brooks leading the "Y" cheer in the second half. He watched the game from the front row near the JMU bench.
Back in his college days, Brooks played for the Dukes as a 6-foot-1 guard and served as a co-captain for two years. A part-time starter who averaged 5.7 points and 17.4 minutes in 107 games, he was deadly from the three-point line, hitting 41 percent of his shots.
--The Wildcats, now 2-0, have their first game outside of Lexington on Tuesday when they face Kansas in the State Farm Champions Classic in Chicago. The showdown tips off around 9:30 p.m. ET and will be televised by ESPN from the United Center.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of seven books about UK basketball, including recently published “Unforgettable Journey with the Cats: Inside Kentucky Hoops Madness.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro, he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle44@gmail.com.
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