Travis Perry on physicality and costly mistakes after his career night in UK's loss at Alabama

Travis Perry had a career night in Tuscaloosa, starting at point guard for a third straight game. Though it came in a loss, Perry set new career highs in points and steals with 12 and four while matching his career-high in minutes with 28 played against Alabama.

The freshman from Lyon County, Kentucky, played the role of Lamont Butler for the Wildcats on Saturday, which came with the daunting task of defending Mark Sears, a consensus Second-Team All-American and the SEC’s second-leading scorer last season. Sears scored a game-high 30 on Perry and everyone Kentucky threw at him, partly by drawing “fouls” for an 11-for-11 night at the free throw line.

After the game, Perry and Jack Givens spoke about the game’s physicality and Perry playing beyond his age against a five-year veteran.

“It was definitely a physical one,” Perry told Goose in his postgame radio interview. “You know, all of the SEC games are going to be going to be pretty physical, but I felt like we tried to try to bring it a little bit tonight.

“There were some calls that went both ways, and I felt like it was just physical throughout. So, you know, those are the games you want to play in, the tough, hardnosed ones, and just try and be as physical as possible throughout.”

Freshmen playing older

Mark Pope called on Kentucky’s freshman class of Perry, Trent Noah, and Collin Chandler a little earlier than scheduled due to the lengthy injury report. The young Wildcats have benefited from the experience. Jack Givens told Perry he thought they “scraped and scratched” defensively against the highest-scoring team in college basketball.

“It’s definitely a point of emphasis for us,” Perry told Goose, “doing the little things, you know, the defensive side of the ball, trying to figure out a way to lean into a more veteran mindset, make the little plays that our team needs down the stretch and throughout the whole game, just to give us any advantage we can to turn the defense into offense.

“I feel like we did a good job with that. I felt like we played really hard today, and that carries over in a game like this.”

Moving forward, protect the ball

Looking ahead, Perry revealed what he and his teammates will work to improve before going back on the road next week. Kentucky plays at Oklahoma on Wednesday, and the team will spend the next couple of days working on protecting the ball and avoiding the costly momentum swings.

“I think protecting the ball is a big point of emphasis for us,” he said. “We just have a couple of things, you know, we talk about it, making mistakes throughout the game. You’re going to make many mistakes, but just making the mistakes our way; that has been a point of emphasis for us.

“I felt like in both halves, really, they had a couple plays that swung the momentum, where if we made a mistake, a turnover, a long rebound that we weren’t wedging correctly, and they get a bucket on the other end. It’s just stuff like that that kind of swings the momentum of a game that we’ve got to control a little bit better, so that’s the main point of emphasis for us.”

With uncertainty around Butler, Perry may be Kentucky’s floor general again on Wednesday.