CLEMSON, S.C. – No. 4 Kentucky men’s basketball (7-1) suffered its first loss of the Mark Pope era on Tuesday night, falling to the Clemson Tigers (8-1) 70-66 inside of Littlejohn Arena in Clemson, South Carolina.
The Cats traveled south with hopes of beating the Tigers in what was the team’s first true road game and second biggest challenger behind, at the time, No. 6 Duke, which they faced on Nov. 12.
Unfortunately for the Cats, they ultimately perished their chances of earning a meaningful quadrant-one road win, shooting just 38.1% (24-63) from the field and a season-low 25.9% (7-27) from beyond the three-point arch.
Looking back at Kentucky’s previous two games before entering Clemson, it was evident that it was trending downwards in terms of the three-ball, with UK shooting 27.6% from downtown against Western Kentucky on Nov. 26 and 26.9% from downtown against Georgia State on Nov. 29.
“I think we just have to get back in the lab, feel confident,” Jaxson Robinson said. “Came into a rough environment and we weren’t necessarily the best offensively, so just making sure that we look over the film and figure out ways we can get better.”
The sold-out Clemson crowd showed no mercy towards the Cats, a newly assembled team who was yet to stand off — together — with a mob of fans who made it a priority to rattle them.
“My very best credit to Clemson for creating that environment,” Pope said. “A lot of it was us just not knowing how to attack that (the environment) yet.”
While Kentucky did face the brutality of a road loss together, it has a golden opportunity to improve and learn from it this upcoming Saturday, when it faces No. 7 Gonzaga on Saturday at 10 p.m. inside of Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. That highly anticipated clash can be viewed on ESPN2.
