Kentucky sweeps season series against Tennessee with 66-54 win at Rupp Arena

Kentucky men’s basketball added another significant win to its NCAA Tournament resume.

On Saturday afternoon in Rupp Arena, the Wildcats (18-9; 9-5 SEC) used an impressive first-half performance to power past the No. 10 Tennessee Volunteers (20-7; 9-5 SEC), winning by a final score of 66-54. Kentucky was dominant in the opening 20 minutes, taking a 20-point lead into the intermission before doing just enough in the second half to walk away with the victory.

Four different Wildcats finished in double-figures, led by 16 points, six rebounds, and six assists from freshman Cason Wallace. Oscar Tshibwe wasn’t too far behind with 16 points (10-11 from the free-throw line) and seven rebounds while Chris Livingston chipped in 12 points and 10 rebounds. Jacob Toppin added 11 points and five rebounds to the cause as Kentucky has now won two in a row and is back on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.

As a team, UK shot 44 percent overall from the field, but won the game at the charity stripe, connecting on 23 of 35 freebies. Tennessee shot just 37 percent and lost the rebounding battle by eight.

Antonio Reeves opened up the scoring for Kentucky with a 3-pointer that immediately got an energized crowd on its feet. From there, the Wildcat freshmen began to make their impact felt. Wallace and Livingston were making everything happen early on as UK pushed ahead to a quick 12-6 lead midway through the opening half.

Just a few minutes later, Kentucky started to break the game wide open. A second-chance dunk from Tshiebwe put the ‘Cats ahead 21-10 as the advantage only continued to grow. UK went in front by 15 with about five minutes left in the half before taking a commanding 39-19 lead into the locker room. Wallace and Livingston combined to score 20 of the team’s points while helping hold UT to just 7-27 shooting from the floor.

But out of the break, Tennessee made sure to keep things close. A 7-0 run to begin the second half forced Kentucky into a timeout not even 90 seconds in. Santiago Vescovi especially stepped up for the Vols, rattling off 15 points of his own not even nine minutes into the second half as he started to heat up from long range. Kentucky always had a counter punch though and took a 51-41 lead into the under-12-minute media timeout.

Tennessee would finally bring the score under double digits with roughly eight minutes to go, but once again, Kentucky found a way to retaliate, particularly by regularly getting to the free-throw line. The ‘Cats were hanging onto a 62-52 lead with under three minutes left despite Tshiebwe dealing with four fouls. A made free throw from Wallace gave UK a nine-point lead as the clock dipped under two minutes to play.

A timely rebound from Livingston — which gave him his first career double-double — put the ball in Kentucky’s hands with just 1:17 left and the score at 63-54 in favor of the ‘Cats. UK ran out the clock from there to seal a 12-point victory, sweeping the regular season series against the Vols for the first time since 2011-12. Kentucky also beat Tennessee 63-56 back on Jan. 14 down in Knoxville.