No. 15 Kentucky men’s basketball was victorious against the outright SEC champions No.4 Tennessee 85-81 inside a raucous Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday to earn a double-bye in the upcoming SEC Tournament.
Winning by just four, the Cats were led by Reed Sheppard and Antonio Reeves who both scored 27 points off of 8-16 and 9-14 shooting from the field respectively.
With Kentucky looking to keep momentum after winning four straight, the Cats started out with a five of Justin Edwards, Adou Thiero, D.J. Wagner, Reeves and Ugonna Onyenso.
Despite the raucous atmosphere and senior day celebrations pregame, It was very slow and uninspiring on the offensive side of the floor for both teams to start in Knoxville with a score of just 10-9 in favor of the Vols with 12 minutes left to play in the first half.
Even with the slow start, Kentucky would go on a 9-0 run to make it a 18-12 game shortly after the under-12 timeout. The Cats would continue to be the better team in the first half, ending the first stanza up by four with a score of 33-29 through Edwards who had 13 points at the half as well as being helped a lot by Tennessee’s abysmal shooting performance in the first 20 minutes of play going just 8-32 from the field.
To start the second half, Kentucky would continue to dominate, extending its lead to 60-46 forcing Rick Barnes to call a timeout with 11:44 left in the game leading to a loud “Go Big Blue” chant being heard from the few Kentucky fans in attendance inside of a hostile Thompson-Boling Arena.
Tennessee however would respond with a run of its own, going on a 9-0 run to make the score 68-63 with 7:29 left in the contest.
Kentucky would continue to score when needed down the stretch to push off any Vols threats to earn a huge victory in the final regular season game of the year and earn a spot on Friday in next week’s SEC Tournament in Nashville.
