Andrew Carr of Kentucky discusses the game with the news media Tuesday night, following UK's 87-68 victory over Western Kentucky at Rupp Arena. (Photo by Jamie H. Vaught)
By Jamie H. Vaught
It wasn’t a very pretty win for Kentucky Tuesday night at Rupp Arena even though the Wildcats prevailed by 19 points, an 87-68 decision.
Give some credit to a very competitive Western Kentucky team which contended with the eighth-ranked Wildcats, who improved their overall record to 6-0. According to a preseason poll of Conference USA coaches, WKU was predicted to finish second in the league.
“Congratulations to Western Kentucky for a great hard-fought battle,” said UK coach Mark Pope. “It's a good team. It’s a NCAA tournament team. Returning eight guys from a team that made an unbelievable run down the stretch last season to win their conference tournament and go to the NCAA tournament. (They) played really, really hard, heavy, heavy pressure. I thought they were terrific tonight. They are going to have a really great season, and these in-state games are always fun for everyone and it was really good for our guys. I'm proud of how our guys responded, and kept grinding and grinding and grinding away.”
With Kentucky shooting only 27.6 percent of its three-pointers (8 of 29) and 40.3 percent overall, it had to rely on defense against the aggressive Hilltoppers. Foul-plagued Western Kentucky, which had four players with four fouls or more, including one who fouled out, struggled with its shooting, making only 31.8 percent of its field goals, lowest by a UK opponent this year.
“I thought we had some great defensive efforts,” said Pope. “I thought Jaxson Robinson was
unbelievable on the defensive end. I thought he was fantastic. And Lamont (Butler) and Otega (Oweh) set the bar really, really high. I thought those guys were great. Andrew Carr was great in every facet of the game tonight. I thought Andrew was just a star on both sides of the ball – all sides of the ball. I’m really proud of that, that matters to us. The defensive field-goal percentage is really, really, really important to us. It’s a cumulative effect. I was really proud of us defensively.
“There were several stretches in the game where we weren’t functioning great on the offensive end and we were finding great joy on the defensive end of the ball and that is a winning formula. Like we are going to have games, where I mean you know, it wasn’t a great offensive game for our guys. They still scored 87 points. That’s the crazy part of it, right?
"But on the defensive end of the floor if we can really find joy there and if we keep going back to the well over and over again, we have a chance to win. We have a chance to win and win a lot of games and win big. So, I was thrilled with that tonight. It was really special. It might not be the most aesthetically pleasing thing, but it was an awesome effort on the defensive end by our guys.”
Six-foot-11 Andrew Carr led the Wildcats with a double-double, hitting 18 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, both season-highs. Otega Oweh also made 18 points and led the team in plus/minus with a +22 mark. The 6-foot-4 guard has scored double figures in every game this season.
In addition, point guard Lamont Butler had 14 points, his third straight game in double figures, and had a game-high-tying four assists with no turnovers.
Asked if the game felt closer than the other home games, Carr said, “I do not necessarily know about close but we certainly felt a lot more frustration in this game, certainly in the first half. We just were out of rhythm, on offense specifically, but credit to Western (Kentucky). They did a great job of pressuring us and trying to take away what we are looking for. We are going to continue to grow and keep getting better at reading the way that people want to defend us, and take advantage of that and punish them. So I’m excited.”
Guard Julius Thedford led WKU with 18 points, including 7 of 11 free throws.
Kentucky, which has a 6-0 mark for the first time since the 2016-17 team, dished out 16 assists. The Wildcats entered the game leading the nation in assists.
UK’s next game is Friday night when it meets Georgia State. The 7 p.m. ET contest will be shown on the SEC Network.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About The Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.” 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 Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.
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