Reed Sheppard blocks deep shot, leads solo fastbreak dunk on other end vs. Canada
Kentucky bounced out to a 15-point lead against Team Canada at halftime during Game 2 of round-robin play in the 2023 GLOBL JAM.
That lead was set in stone after incoming freshman and McDonald’s All-American Reed Sheppard blocked a Canadian 3-point attempt with less than 30 seconds left in the half. He collected to rebound and soared to the other end of the court for a solo slam dunk.
Sheppard’s dunk gave the legacy guard 12 points, including two 3-pointers, and three steals. Watch the highlight below:
As the video shows, Sheppard will wear his father, Jeff’s number, No. 15, during the 2023-2024 college basketball season. Reed’s father helped Kentucky to their 1996 and 1998 NCAA Championship victories, including winning the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player award during the ’98 run.
Now, his son will look to push UK to the same heights. As it seems, he’s well on his way.
Tre Mitchell: Kentucky ‘proved everybody wrong’ on rebounding concerns
Losing Oscar Tshiebwe to the NBA is an obvious blow to Kentucky‘s rebounding efforts for the 2023-24 season. They won’t be tabbed as elite on the glass anymore, but the Wildcats looked just fine hauling in boards in an 81-73 victory against Germany during the 2023 GLOBL Jam in Toronto.
Kentucky was ultimately outrebounded 50-46 by the Germans, but four of UK’s five starters logged at least four or more rebounds on the day. Incoming freshman Justin Edwards led the team with nine boards and as a team, grabbed 11 offensive rebounds.
“We lost our biggest guy yesterday. For us, we proved to ourselves that we can fight. We can rebound,” Kentucky forward Tre Mitchell said during the CBSSN broadcast after the win. “Coming into this, I know there were rumors floating around saying that we weren’t a good rebounding team because of our size. But I think we proved everybody wrong today because we ended up winning the game because we rebounded.”
Ugonna Onyenso, one of Kentucky’s three returning players from last season, had to be helped off the court after suffering an ankle injury during a scrimmage against Team Africa ahead of the event. Aaron Bradshaw is also expected to miss significant time after undergoing foot surgery last month. Standing 6-foot-11 and 7-foot-1 respectively, the Cats are stretching as far as they can with their limited roster at the moment.
Still, outrebounding Germany wasn’t the key to victory — rather, it was the three-point shooting that gave the Wildcats the opening win. Mitchell went 4-for-6 from beyond the arc during the matchup finishing with 20 points while contributing six rebounds of his own.