FINAL: Rob Dillingham steals the show on Senior Night as Kentucky tops Vanderbilt 93-77

Prior to tipoff, Wednesday night was all about honoring the Wildcats’ seniors, but Rob Dillingham turned it into his own personal scoring clinic.

During the final game at Rupp Arena of the 2023-24 season, Dillingham led No. 15 Kentucky (22-8; 12-5 SEC) to a smooth 93-77 win over the Vanderbilt Commodores (8-22; 3-14 SEC) on Senior Night in Lexington. The star freshman finished with a game-high 23 points on 9-15 shooting in addition to his two rebounds and five assists.

A trio of Wildcat seniors — Antonio Reeves, Tre Mitchell, and Kareem Watkins — all received the starting nod from head coach John Calipari. Kentucky’s fourth senior, Brennan Canada, opted out of the Senior Night celebrations after going through the process a year ago. Reeves posted 20 points, six rebounds, and four assists while Mitchell added two points, one rebound, and one block in limited minutes. Watkins recorded one rebound in the opening minute of play before making his way to the bench.

As a team, Kentucky shot 50.7 percent from the field, 11-27 (40.7 percent) from beyond the arc, and 8-9 (88.9 percent) from the line. Justin Edwards (11 points) and DJ Wagner (10) also reached double-figures. Kentucky won the rebounding battle 44-32 and dished out 16 more assists (27-11) than the Commodores.

If you thought the late start time and Senior Night festivities would slow down Kentucky out of the gate, you hit the nail on the head. Nothing was falling for the Wildcats early on, especially from long range. The score was knotted at 6-6 roughly six minutes into the night. Wagner would finally get a triple to fall for Kentucky at the 11:28 mark, but Vanderbilt continued to hang around.

The Commodores made the first big run of the game, drilling back-to-back three-pointers that gave them a 22-16 lead and forced Kentucky into a timeout. Vandy’s advantage remained at six a couple of minutes later before the Wildcats’ offense finally came alive. All it took was a handful of clean looks for UK to catch fire down the stretch.

Across the final seven minutes of the opening half, Kentucky outscored Vanderbilt 25-14, capped off by four straight makes from beyond the arc in the final two minutes. Reeves polished off the half right before the buzzer with the final triple, handing UK a 45-40 lead at the break. Kentucky grabbed 11 more rebounds than the ‘Dores after 20 minutes, but a 53.7 percent shooting clip from Vandy allowed them to stick around by the intermission.

The second half was all Justin Edwards early on. The freshman drilled a shot from deep, forced a steal that he turned into a dunk, then hit another triple — a personal 8-0 run all in under 90 seconds. Kentucky’s 53-45 edge was its biggest of the game up to this point. Then it was Dillingham’s turn to put on a scoring display.

The show-stopping freshman poured in eight points after Edwards’ run, giving Kentucky its first double-digit lead of the evening. Dillingham followed it up with a three-pointer to put UK in front by 13 points midway through the second half. The ‘Cats began to cruise from there.

Kentucky’s lead quickly ballooned to 19 points right before the final media timeout. However, the ‘Cats let the foot off the gas just a bit. Vanderbilt got as close as 11 points on multiple occasions down the stretch, but the outcome was never truly in danger as Kentucky settled on the 16-point victory.

Up next: Kentucky heads to Knoxville this weekend for the regular-season finale against No. 4 Tennessee (24-6; 14-3 SEC). Tipoff on Saturday is set for 4:00 p.m. EST on CBS.