Ansley Almonor and Otega Oweh scored 13 points each for short-handed No. 15 Kentucky, as the Wildcats withstood a second-half charge from No. 5 Tennessee to beat the Volunteers 75-64 in a SEC showdown Tuesday night in Lexington, Ky.
Almonor and Oweh were among four players to score in double-figures for the Wildcats (17-7, 6-5), who made 12-of-24 3-point shots to match their performance against the Volunteers (20-5, 7-5) two weeks ago. Notably, Tennessee entered Tuesday leading the country in 3-point defense (26.6 percent).
Oweh scored five of his points in the final 1:21, helping the Wildcats pull away.
Tennessee, though, would start the second half going 8-for-10 to narrow the deficit to 50-47 with 12:45 left on a fast-break layup by Jordan Gainey. The senior guard would then give the Volunteers a 56-55 lead, their first in more than 24 minutes, with a bucket with 7:26 to go.
Zakai Zeigler led Tennessee with 17 points. Igor Milicic Jr. added 16 points.
Tennessee led 60-58 with 4:51 remaining, but Kentucky went on a 12-4 run to earn its seventh win this season over a Top 10 opponent.
Kentucky played without guard Jaxson Robinson, its second-leading scorer (13.3 ppg) who missed his first game of the season due to a wrist injury he suffered in practice on Friday. That depth would be tested further after Lamont Butler exited the game with 8:40 left in regulation after landing on his left shoulder while trying to secure the ball. The senior guard has missed five games, including three after hurting that shoulder last month.
A pair of native sons, freshmen Trent Noah and Travis Perry filled that void Tuesday by notching career highs in points. Noah, a 6-foot-5 freshman from Harlan, Ky., had played in 11 games and scored 24 total points. He set his career-high with 11 points and scored nine points in the first half by going 3-for-4 from the 3-point line. Two of those treys came in the final four minutes to help Kentucky build a 33-24 lead in the final two minutes of the half.
Perry, a 6-foot-1 guard from Eddyville who holds the Kentucky high school career scoring record, scored eight points and hit two of his three shots from beyond the arc.
Besides Noah, Kentucky’s defense was the story in the first half. The Wildcats entered Tuesday ranked last in SEC play allowing conference foes to score 83.4 points. However, they held the Volunteers to 26 first-half points on 34.6 percent shooting.
–Field Level Media
