(Vicky Graff Photo)
What looked like it might be a terrific road win turned into a disastrous second half for Kentucky in Knoxville.
The Cats built an eight-point halftime lead behind the play of P.J. Washington and Wenyen Gabriel but collapsed in the second half at Tennessee Saturday and lost 76-65.
Kentucky was outscored 47-28 in the second half. That’s right — 47 to 28. Kentucky missed 16 of 25 shots, got out rebounded by eight, was outscored 24-8 in the paint and made 14 turnovers in the second half.
“The game is a game of runs and in the second half they made their run,” Gabriel said.
The Vols did, but Kentucky helped.
Kentucky had five turnovers in the first four minutes of the second half to let the Vols wipe out a 37-29 deficit. Gabriel got his third and fourth fouls in a 10-second span with 14 1/2 minutes to play and then immediately got his fifth foul when Calipari put him back into the game with 12:21 left after Hamidou Diallo got his fourth foul.
Kentucky coach John Calipari said his team got “out-toughed” by the Vols in the second half, especially after Washington went down with a leg cramp with about 12 1/2 minutes left in the game and never returned. The Vols led only 49-47 when he went out but dominated the rest of the way.
“We were literally standing next to the cheerleaders. It was too physical for us,” Calipari said in his postgame press conference. “When P.J. went down they saw the wounded animal and went after him. In the second half we literally collapsed. We gave them hope.”
Quade Green, who had 14 points and four assists, was even more blunt in his assessment on the UK Radio Network.
“When P.J. went down, we had no toughness. We wasn’t fighting enough, not playing with toughness,” Green said.
He also said playing four games in eight days was no excuse for the second-half play with or without Washington.
“We were energetic in the first half. In the second half, I don’t know what happened. They were playing with toughness,” Green said.
Washington continued his stellar play in the first half when he went 5-for-7 from the field and had 11 points, three rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots. He powered his way inside time after time just as he did the second half at LSU Wednesday when he had 13 points, three rebounds and two blocks. In those two halves, he was 11-for-13 from the field with 25 points.
He had another goal in the second half before he went down and never returned. Calipari said that limited what UK could do on both ends since Washington was the only one who could stymie Grant Williams, who had 16 of his 18 points in the second half.
Guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had his string of solid games stopped as he was 1-for-6 from the field and had just three points. He had six assists and three rebounds, but also made five turnovers
“They were physical and up on him. I’m not worried about Shai. Shai’s fine … The toughness issue. They watch tape. Just throw them aside,” Calipari said.
Tennessee outrebounded UK 37-30 and got 16 second chance points. The Vols also found so many openings in UK’s defense with crisp passes that they had 23 assists on 25 made shots.
“We kind of let up in the second half,” Gabriel said.
Kind of?
Maybe Nick Richards didn’t. He had nine points on 4-for-4 shooting along with eight rebounds and one block.
Kevin Knox was 1-for-9 from the field — 0-for-5 on 3-pointers — and had two turnovers in 23 minutes. Diallo was 2-for-5 from the field and had five points and four rebounds. He played just 16 minutes before fouling out.
The positive is that college basketball is having a year that is hard to predict. Duke, North Carolina and Arizona all lost road games Saturday, too.
Texas A&M, a team many thought might win the SEC, will bring an 0-3 league mark into Tuesday’s game at Rupp Arena when Kentucky will need to get back to playing with the “desperation” Calipari said was missing at Tennessee.
