No. 6 Kentucky men’s basketball recorded a bounce-back victory, defeating Arkansas 63-57 at Bud Walton Arena on Saturday.
Similar to Kentucky’s 2023 win in Fayetteville, it was the Antonio Reeves show with the veteran leading all scorers with 24 points.
The Wildcats entered the game after suffering a shocking defeat away at South Carolina, making UK 0-2 in its prior two SEC road games and 1-2 overall on the road in conference play.
Looking for a critical bounce-back opportunity, the Cats marched out a starting lineup of Adou Thiero — making his long-awaited return — Reeves, D.J. Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw and Tre Mitchell. While head coach John Calipari regained Thiero, was forced to play without key rotation scorer Rob Dillingham.
The start, for both teams, would be less than flattering as neither team scored a basket for over two minutes and Kentucky failed to score its first bucket until over 3.5 minutes into the half.
Things wouldn’t immediately improve, either.
While a few baskets would eventually fall, Kentucky quickly found itself trailing by double digits on the road for the second time in a week, down 18-8.
While the double-digit-gap wouldn’t last throughout the half, the offensive woes would for both teams.
Kentucky teased a potential lead change on multiple occasions but was ultimately unable to deliver, entering the break trailing by two with both teams shooting 29% (9-31) from the floor. While the Hogs seemed to have been clicking earlier, they finished the half on a nearly three-minute field goal drought.
Regrettably for the Cats, despite quickly tying the game in the second half, they once again tripped over their own shoelaces with costly mistakes to allow the Hogs to re-widen the gap back to six points.
As hope seemed lost and traveling fans got flashbacks of the utter collapse less than a week prior versus South Carolina, the Cats seemingly remembered who they were and a steal and dunk by Reed Sheppard eventually gave UK its first lead of the entire game with under 13 left to play.
The lead would last all of 15 seconds before it was retaken by the Hogs, which kicked off a streak of lead changes.
Kentucky would manage to claim the lead for longer than a few seconds at a time, but struggled to pull away from the Hogs, who continued to apply pressure.
The Cats continued to remain just ahead but had to fight to do so with seconds continuing to tick away from the clock.
Ultimately, Kentucky was able to get the job done and earn an ugly bounce-back win in Arkansas.
Kentucky will return to action on Wednesday, Jan. 31, at home against Florida, which it already beat once this season. Tip-off against the Gators is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN.
