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Posted by catmandoo (Member # 1284) on 02-18-2021, 12:04 PM:

That’s two in a row for Kentucky as they went on the road to extend their winning streak against Vanderbilt to 10 games with a 82-78 triumph at Memorial Gym. UK rode a strong first half to go with 15 free throw makes in the second half to improve to 4-7 in games decided by three possessions or less. It’s back-to-back close game victories and now the Wildcats are now just a 1/2 game back of Missouri for the No. 7 seed in the SEC Tournament.

It was another very strong offensive performance, but it’s pretty clear at this point that the defense needs some work with UK being committed to this faster style of play.

Offense
Kentucky scored 82 points in 73 possessions posting 1.12 points per trip. UK made 52.4 percent of their two-point attempts and that’s even stronger when you consider they were 5-of-13 on layups. The Wildcats were 8-of-26 from three with 26 paint points and 12 points off 15 offensive rebounds. However, the story of the game was the work at the charity stripe.

Kentucky scored 24 of its 82 points from the free throw line and it only took 25 attempts to get there. The Wildcats were a perfect 15-of-15 in the second half with Jacob Toppin leading the way with five makes. Six different players attempted free throws and in the end it is what won UK the game.

Davion Mintz led the team with 18 points with four makes from three-point land. In 36 minutes, the grad transfer had just one turnover while dishing out three assists and continues to make some big shots in the crunch time for this offense.

In the block, Isaiah Jackson put together his second consecutive outstanding offensive performance. The freshman big scored 15 points on five field goal attempts with five makes at the free throw line. Jackson had three of UK’s six dunks while grabbing nine total rebounds in 20 minutes. The numbers would’ve been much bigger if it wasn’t for foul trouble.

Devin Askew played 34 minutes, but it was a bit of a struggle. The freshman point guard was just 1-of-6 from the floor and had four turnovers to go with just three assists. However, he was 6-of-6 from the free throw line with four of those makes occurring in the last three minutes.

Perhaps the surprise performance of the game came from Jacob Toppin who scored a career-high 16 points in 22 minutes. Toppin was surprisingly effective in some pin down actions while playing a ton of minutes at the three. He was 5-of-9 from the field, had zero turnovers and was a perfect 5-for-5 at the free throw line. These were huge minutes off of the bench.

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Posted by Tiptree (Member # 844) on 02-18-2021, 02:24 PM:

It is clear. When we score over 80 points, we will win a squeaker. Maybe we need to shoot for 100. [Smile]