Rick Barnes after Tennessee's loss at Kentucky: 'The threes didn't beat us'

No, Kentucky shooting 12-for-24 from the 3-point line wasn’t anything new Tuesday night at Rupp Arena. It was the same exact numbers that the Wildcats shot from three two weeks earlier at Food City Center.  

Tuesday it was a 75-64 win in Lexington. Two weeks ago it was a 78-73 win in Knoxville. 

The rematch wasn’t decided at the 3-point line, according to head coach Rick Barnes, though. Neither was the first meeting, when Tennessee missed 34 of the 45 3-pointers the Vols attempted in their own gym. 

“The threes didn’t beat us,” Barnes said during his postgame press conference Tuesday night. “I’m going to tell you, I’ve played in games where we won games when guys have made 20 threes.”

Mark Pope: ‘It’s not a terrible fit for how we play, but it’s an incredible challenge for sure’

This time freshman Noah Trent went 3-for-4 from the 3-point line for Kentucky (17-7, 6-5). Koby Brea was 3-for-6 and Ansley Almonor and Travis Perry were both 2-for-3. 

Almonor hit four in Knoxville and Brea went a perfect 3-for-3. Jaxson Robison, who scored 17 points on four made threes in the first meeting, was sidelined Tuesday by a wrist injury.

“It’s such a small sample size,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said afterward. “It’s just two games. But our guys, I think they understand what a challenge it is to go against this Tennessee team, this great defensive team. There’s no two ways about it. They’re great. And I think our guys look forward to the challenge.

“We had some guys make some big plays. They exert so much pressure. Kind of the way we play is almost more functional against intense, intense pressure, if you can just survive. And so it’s not a terrible fit for how we play, but it’s an incredible challenge for sure.”

Igor Milicic led Tennessee (20-5, 7-5 SEC) by scoring 13 of his 16 points in the second half, helping the Vols turn a nine-point deficit into a three-point lead. He went 3-for-4 from the 3-point line while the rest of the Vols went 0-for-14. 

Chaz Lanier was 0-for-7 from three while scoring 10 points. Jordan Gainey was 0-for-4 off the bench. Zakai Zeigler was 0-for-2 and Darlinstone Dubar missed his only attempt.

Kentucky is only team to shoot more than 40% from three against Tennessee this season

Kentucky is the only team through 25 games to shoot 40% or better from three against Tennessee this season, hitting 50% in both games. 

Missouri is the only other team to hit 40% and Vanderbilt, at 38.1% is the only other opponent to hit more than 32% from the 3-point line, where Tennessee second nationally in 3-point defense.

Still, Barnes said it was other failures on the defensive end. 

“You let their bench come in and impact the game in a big way,” he said. “That can’t happen, but it did.”

Kentucky had 26 points from its bench. The Wildcats also had 15 transition points and scored 12 more off of nine Tennessee turnovers.

“And we’ve talked enough about it,” Barnes continued. “They got guys that can shoot the ball. I mean, I asked the question, the guys we expect to shoot it, why aren’t we making ours? Because we have some great looks at it. So you give them credit for making the shots.”

Tennessee led 60-58 with 4:51 left after Zeigler scored on a layup. Brea hit the go-ahead three 30 seconds later, with Kentucky starting a 12-2 run to take control. 

The Vols didn’t make a shot from the field over the final 2:32 and missed five of their final six shots as Kentucky scored 17 of the final 21 points.

“With all those threes going in, they’re going to score,” Barnes said of Kentucky. “That’s what they do. I mean, you expect them to shoot it. But you can’t give them the other things that we gave up tonight, along with that.”