By the Numbers: Kentucky's win over Mississippi State

Phew! It got stressful there at the end, but Kentucky escaped Starkville with a 71-68 win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs. The victory brings the Cats’ record to 17-9, 8-5 in SEC play. Most importantly, it takes their Quad 1 record to 2-7 with three more Q1 opportunities remaining. Big!

We’ll be rolling out coverage all night. Let’s start with some numbers that stood out to me…

11-1: Cason Wallace‘s assists to turnovers. Wallace is still struggling with his shot, going 1-13 from the floor for four points tonight, and seems to still be battling back problems, but ran the team well with a shorthanded backcourt. The offensive rebound that led to a massive dunk by Daimion Collins to push Kentucky’s lead to 7 with 11:08 left was huge, as was the lob to Jacob Toppin with 1:46 left. Wallace finished the game with a team-high +8 in efficiency.

38-22: Kentucky’s total rebounds to Mississippi State’s

18-7: Kentucky’s offensive rebounds to Mississippi State’s. The Bulldogs came into the game as the fifth-best offensive-rebounding team in the country with 11.8 offensive boards per game.

13: Second-half points from Chris Livingston after zero in the first half. He played all 20 minutes in the second half. His offensive rebound after Antonio Reeves’ missed three with 9 seconds left was massive, as were the two free throws he sank two seconds later to put the Cats up four with 7 seconds left.

4: Wildcats in double figures: Livingston (13 points), Oscar Tshiebwe (18 points, 11 rebounds), Jacob Toppin (16 points), and Antonio Reeves (14 points)

833: Rebounds for Oscar Tshiebwe as a Wildcat. With tonight’s 11 boards, he passed Bob Burrow (823) for 10th place on Kentucky’s all-time rebounding list. Rick Robey is up next at 838.

7-9: Jacob Toppin‘s shooting from the field tonight.

4: Three-pointers from Antonio Reeves, three in the first half.

Box Score

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Shot Chart

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Lineups

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Season Stats