Meaningful numbers, stats, and box score from Kentucky's 85-81 win over Tennessee

Kentucky closed the regular season on a five-game win streak, beating Tennessee in Knoxville in the Saturday finale. With the win, the Wildcats finished T-2 in the SEC’s regular-season race with a 13-5 record in league play and a 23-8 record overall. The win in Knoxville also marked Kentucky’s second in a row there, extending the lead on Tennessee’s floor to 59-53 all-time. Want more numbers from Saturday’s fun? We got ’em, with the complete box score and final regular season stats at the bottom. Go Cats.

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51.7 percent from 3

With hot shooting, Kentucky jumped out to its largest lead, fourteen points in the second half. The Wildcats hit over half of their 3-point tries for the game, connecting on 15 of 29 shots from outside. Reed Sheppard, Antonio Reeves, and Justin Edwards did most of the damage, making 14 of the team’s 15 from deep. Rob Dillingham threw in the other. We’ll ignore Kentucky’s two airballs at the beginning of the game because they didn’t matter in the end.

27 points each from Reeves and Sheppard

Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard were game-high scorers for the winning team, scoring 27 each for a combined 54 of the Wildcats’ 85 on the board. Reeves had his seventh straight game with more than 20 points, the longest streak since Jamal Murray averaged 20.0 per game in 2015-16. With 27 against the Vols, Reeves passed Murray for the highest scoring average of the John Calipari era, breaking their tie at 20.0 ppg to finish with 20.2 ppg.

Sheppard’s 27-point day was spiked by his career-high seven 3-pointers. Sheppard missed two of his first three, then hit his next six in a row on his way to his second-best scoring effort this season.

16 points for Justin Edwards

Justin Edwards played a starring role earlier in the game with his hot hand before Reed Sheppard went crazy after halftime. Edwards matched his 3-point total from his breakout performance against Alabama, hitting another four 3-pointers against Tennessee to tie his career best. With 16 from Edwards, the trio of Reeves, Sheppard, and Edwards scored 70 points alone.

5 players with points

Beyond the aforementioned trio of scorers, only Rob Dillingham and DJ Wagner scored points for Kentucky. Dillingham had 11, and Wagner had four. Thus, all of UK’s points came from guards and only five of the ten players who logged minutes.

9 blocks

Though Kentucky got hot later in the game, the Wildcats missed 3 of 10 to start the game, including two airballs from 3 that I said I wouldn’t mention earlier. Still, Kentucky didn’t fall behind early in a sticky situation because they answered the bell defensively. Ugonna Oynenso and Adou Thiero came up big with early-game blocks. Kentucky had five blocks by halftime, two from each of those guys.

41 non-Knecht points

Dalton Knecht was exceptional, scoring 40 points in his final home game as a Vol. Still, Kentucky “kept the irrelevant irrelevant,” holding all the other Vols to a collective 41 points, 10 of which were in the last couple of minutes, when Knecht was the target. When the Vols won the first meeting, the non-Knecht players scored 87.

42 rebounds

In Lexington, Tennessee smashed Kentucky in the face in all areas of the game, including on the glass, where the Vols outrebounded Kentucky in Rupp Arena, 44-38. In Knoxville, Kentucky smashed back, winning the rebounding battle 42-37. Antonio Reeves led the way with seven, followed by six boards by Justin Edwards, Adou Thiero, Ugonna Onyenso, and Reed Sheppard.

20 fouls

Kentucky managed to beat foul trouble and the Vols in Knoxville. Four Kentucky players had gone to the bench by halftime with two fouls apiece, meaning John Calipari couldn’t play them again until the second half, per his own rule. Meanwhile, Kentucky shot two free throws in the first half to Tennessee’s 13.

12 assists to 16 turnovers

“That’s not who we are,” said John Calipari after the game, speaking to Kentucky’s assist-to-turnover ratio in Knoxville. Tennessee scored 21 points off those turnovers.

Kentucky-Tennessee Box Score

Cumulative season stats