Keion Brooks Jr. came to fight against Tennessee

The Kentucky Wildcats played its worse game of basketball in months, and some might argue of the entire season, in a 69-62 loss to Tennessee during the 2022 SEC Tournament semifinals on Saturday afternoon. UK shot just 34 percent overall, including a pitiful 2-20 mark from beyond the arc. Kentucky received just a single point from its bench, Kellan Grady and Davion Mintz combined to shoot 1-14 from the floor, and Oscar Tshiebwe fouled out for the first time all season.

But it wasn’t just that. The intensity levels didn’t appear to collectively pick up until the final 10 minutes, once Tennessee was comfortably in front and riding plenty of momentum. The open shots that had been falling regularly throughout the season were suddenly rattling out. It felt like anything that could wrong for Kentucky, did.

Well, except for the game that Keion Brooks Jr. put on display. If it wasn’t for the veteran forward, Kentucky very well loses this game by double-digits without having the opportunity to steal it down the stretch. Brooks posted a team-high 19 points on 7-11 shooting, even making UK’s first 3-pointer of the game and his first since the win over Alabama back on Feb. 19.

A loss is still a loss, and now isn’t the time in the season to hit a wall, but Brooks was at least encouraged by the effort he and his teammates showed when Tennessee could have easily blown the game wide open.

“We’re still in great spirits, looking forward to what we got coming up next week,” Brooks said after the loss. “We were really happy with the way we continued to fight. We could have gave up and we still pushed it and had a chance to win the game. It was a tough loss we hate to lose, but we’re still in good spirits moving forward.”

19 points were his most since dropping 20 against Vanderbilt in early February, just one game after he exploded for 27 in the famous beatdown of Kansas. Brooks connected on all four of his free-throw attempts against Tennessee while adding five rebounds and a block to his stat line in 28 minutes played. The majority of his shots were coming right at the rim as he was aggressive from the opening tip when it came to penetrating the paint. Brooks was a tough guard for any Tennessee defender as he consistently slipped around Volunteer players for smooth layups.

It wasn’t a perfect game from Brooks — he still turned the ball over three times, registered four fouls, and took an ill-advised triple late in the game — but one that kept his team alive in a contest that never felt like it should be as close as it was. He scored six straight for Kentucky during the first half that cut the deficit to five and then scored seven more across a four-minute span late in the second half that gave the ‘Cats a chance in the closing possessions.

There is plenty to blame as the reason for Kentucky’s poor showing against Tennessee, but no one can point to Brooks as one of them.