Behind 22 second-half points, Reed Sheppard saved Kentucky (again)

It was less than two weeks ago that Reed Sheppard scored 23 points in the second half on the road against Mississippi State. The freshman from London, KY was an unstoppable force down in Starkville, highlighted by his game-winning runner right before the buzzer.

History nearly repeated itself on Saturday in Knoxville. Once again, it was Sheppard who saved the day.

Kentucky nearly blew a 14-point second-half lead to the No. 4 Tennessee Volunteers down the stretch. Some poorly timed turnovers in the closing minutes almost allowed UT to mount a comeback in what would have been a demoralizing loss for the Wildcats going into the postseason next week. Had it not been for Sheppard’s play after halftime, that very well could have been the case.

But it wasn’t. Sheppard exploded for 22 of his 27 total points in the second half against the Vols. Kentucky won 85-81 and locked up a double-bye in the SEC Tournament. He only missed one of his seven shots from long range while also chipping in three rebounds, an assist, a block, and a steal in 19 second-half minutes.

Sheppard’s biggest stretch came with 4:02 left in the game, as his fifth three-pointer of the half pushed Kentucky ahead by 10. Then, after a layup from Tennessee, Sheppard came back down the floor a couple of possessions later with his sixth and final three-pointer of the half (a contested one at that), extending UK’s advantage back out to 11 with 2:35 to go.

He even blocked a UT three-pointer with 31 seconds left that would have made it a two-point game had it dropped in. In typically Reed Sheppard fashion, he did a little bit of everything for his squad.

“This was a huge, huge game for us and a big win,” Sheppard told Jack “Goose” Givens after the win. “You know, Tennessee’s a really good team, really good players, it was their Senior Night, fans were into it, awesome atmosphere. It was unbelievable. So we really had to stick together and play as a team and lock in defensively and just — we knew coming in what we needed to do. We knew it was gonna be a fistfight. We knew they were going to come out and be physical and play good and have the crowds, so we knew we had to stick together and just lock-in.”

"REED SHEPPARD ICE IN HIS VEINS!" @KentuckyMBB pic.twitter.com/3qiit3hBua

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 9, 2024

Sheppard finished with an overall stat line of 27 points (9-14 FG; 7-10 3PT; 2-2 FT), six rebounds, five assists, one block, and one steal in 33 minutes of action. However, he did turn the ball over four times — twice in the final 2:14 — for just the third time all season.

But outside of some late-game mistakes, Sheppard was almost perfect. He wasn’t alone either. Rob Dillingham also coughed up a bad turnover near the end while Antonio Reeves got caught with a 10-second violation in the backcourt. Luckily, those miscues didn’t ultimately cost the ‘Cats, but it’s something he and the rest of his team know needs to be fixed going into the postseason.

“Late game stuff, that’s on us now. It’s nothing the coaches can do. We gotta figure it out,” Sheppard said. “We gotta be stronger with the ball. We gotta be smarter. We will. We will. Anytime that we’ve had a struggle with something this year, we’ve figured it out, we’ve worked together as a team, and got better at it. So now we know we’ve really struggled at it we can work on and get better at it and it will be just fine.”

But when we look back on how this regular-season finale played out, we won’t be remembering the turnovers. We’ll remember Sheppard saving Kentucky yet again by hitting massive shot after massive shot.