Kentucky didn't make a field goal for the final 5+ minutes -- and still beat Tennessee

With 5:20 left to go in a tight game, Koby Brea hit his third and final three-pointer of the night to give Kentucky an eight-point lead. It was the last made field goal of the night for the Wildcats. You’d think that kind of scoring drought would lead to a run on the other end of the floor. A Top 10 opponent and playing on the road against a conference rival? That’s a death sentence.

Not for Mark Pope’s group though. Nope. No. 8 Tennessee still lost by five points, 78-73, down in Knoxville on Tuesday night. For many reasons, it was Kentucky’s most improbable win in a season filled with plenty of them.

Brea’s timely triple made it a 71-63 advantage for Kentucky with a little over five minutes left in regulation. With that being the final field goal for UK, the Wildcats finished the game 7-8 from the free-throw line. That’s especially impressive when you consider UK was just 9-16 from the stripe before then.

Missed freebies cost Kentucky against Vanderbilt over the weekend — they amended that on Tuesday.

It was the Wildcats’ defense that stepped up in place of an ice-cold offense. Following Brea’s three-pointer, Tennessee made just three buckets the rest of the way. The Volunteers went 3-15 from the floor across the final five minutes — all but one of those attempts came from inside the arc. Kentucky gave up more than a few offensive rebounds (and had some loose balls simply slip right through a player’s hands) off some of those misses, but always found ways to close possessions.