Kentucky basketball beats Tennessee, beating SEC rivalry with growth

Mark Pope's Kentucky Wildcats defeated their SEC basketball rival the Tennessee Volunteers with another big comeback Saturday at Rupp Arena.

Kentucky basketball rally behind Tennessee to complete SEC rivalry

- The Kentucky Wildcats overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to beat Tennessee, 74-71, on Saturday at Rupp Arena.

- The comeback marked UK's eighth win in nine games and its second rally against UT in that span.

- Kentucky wore denim jerseys and celebrated the 1995-96 championship team during the game.

LEXINGTON -- Maybe there's magic to Kentucky basketball's denim jerseys.The 1995-96 UK team, the first to wear the design, never lost its look.

After trailing by double digits at halftime, the Wildcats, donning a Cowboys uniform for the first time this season, dug deep again to pull off another memorable comeback on Saturday night and ensure the program remained undefeated in the uniform.

For the second time in less than a month, Tennessee committed the show's final mistake as Kentucky won 74-71 at Rupp Arena.The Wildcats erased a 14-point halftime deficit, marking the largest second-half comeback at the sanctuary since it opened in 1976.

After the surprise victory, UK coach Mark Pope, surrounded by his fellow members of that Championship club of three decades ago, could not praise his players enough.

“I talked to the players before I went up to the locker room,” he said."Because this is Kentucky, there's a lot of noise about everything these guys do. Honoring denim and bringing denim back is such a big deal and such a big story. I just talked to them the other day and said, 'Guys, I know this is all happening, but this isn't what it was 30 years ago. This isn't about denim. This is nothing but the story you're writing now.'

"Because the story they're writing now is amazing. It's their story."

The Wildcats (17-7, 8-3 SEC) trailed 47-33.Prior to Saturday, UK's largest half-time deficit at Rupp Arena was 12 points against Arkansas on January 29, 2006.

But the hosts outscored the Volunteers (16-7, 6-4) by 17 points (41-24) in the final 20 minutes for the Pope team's eighth win in its last nine games.It also gave Kentucky a home-and-home series sweep against UT for the second time in as many years under Pope.

The previous win on Jan. 17 in Knoxville, Tennessee, played out in remarkably similar fashion.UT led by as many as 17 points in the first half.Great Britain won 80-78.

"I can get over that loss," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "The one in Knoxville? The one. It took me two days to get over it, and I've been doing this for a long time, and I usually let them go pretty quickly, but that's what it's like -- we're just gift-wrapped. But they did what they had to do. They did exactly what they had to do to win the game. That's how we expected the game to end. When the game ends, you think it's the last time you play."was..."

The players who were often the main catalysts for Kentucky's comeback wins took the lead.

Senior guard Utega Uwe scored nine of his team's 21 points after the break.That included an acrobatic up-and-down layup that briefly put the hosts up 61-60 with 6 minutes left.As impressive as it was, Uwe said he only finished in the top four of his career at Kentucky.

"It was crazy. I really thought they were going to call a foul," Ow said.

"This is the 'Mikan exercise' that we do every day."

Oweh was in the middle of the biggest shot of the game.Only this time he was a distributor, not a shooter.A minute later the Wildcats trailed 69-68 and Oweh drove into the lane.The Vols' defense collapsed on him.Oweh responded by flicking the open ball to Colin Chandler.

The rest was done by the sophomore guard.

Crowned by his key play of the season, Chandler hit a three-pointer that put England up 71-69.

Chandler laughed off a question about whether he was afraid of failure when he went up to shoot.

- Aren't you afraid?... Of course not, of course not, - he said.

Ove's impressive performance is not surprising: Saturday marked the 24th time in 24 games this season that he has recorded double figures.Chandler's knack for making winning plays — recall that in addition to his clutch hits, he was also responsible for the opposite-baseline pass that set up Malachi Moreno's LSU touchdown — has also become routine.

They rather ignore Mouhamed Dioubate.But the junior forward delivered what Pope called "the game-ending game" on Saturday.Dioubate followed up with an offensive rebound after Chandler missed a 1-1 layup with three seconds left and Kentucky trailing by just one point (72-71).Denzel Aberdeen made the final difference with two free throws.

"The plays he makes, they're not things you see on the 'Sportscentor Top 10,'" Pope said of DioBebate."Sometimes it's hard to love the league."

Chandler.Dioubate.Oweh.

There are perhaps three players who have been praised above the rest.

But teams always win together.And lose together.It is not an individual sport.

The Wildcats have struggled greatly this season (humbling losses to Michigan State, Gonzaga, and Vanderbilt come to mind).But as the wins start piling up since SEC play began, Kentucky appears to be falling apart.

This outfit will probably never reach the heights of the 1995-96 team.This team was known as "The Untouchables" for a reason.That's good of the Pope.This season's team is on its way.

Building faith every day.

"One of the things about bringing out the losses is difficult that you can rob you of all your personal duties, you will be able to steal it, you will be able to find you many functions. And you will investigate.

"And they are delivering."

Contact Kentucky men's basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him @RyanABlack on the X.

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