Peaking as it enters the second half of Southeastern Conference play, No. 25 Tennessee is searching for revenge and its fifth straight win on Saturday against Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.
Since squandering a 17-point lead in an 80-78 home loss to Kentucky, Tennessee (16-6, 6-3 SEC) has rattled off four consecutive victories. For the streaking Volunteers, projected first-round NBA draft pick Nate Ament has averaged 24.5 points and 6.8 rebounds across the last four games.
The freshman poured in 28 points in Tennessee’s 84-66 win over Ole Miss on Tuesday, helping the Volunteers pull within a game of first place in the SEC.
“I love the kid to death, because he’s everything that you’d want in a player, and for your program to represent, and I know how hard he’s worked,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said of Ament. “He’s such an unselfish person. He wants to win at the highest level, but he’s got a lot of pride, and he should, because he wants to be good. He wants to be the best with his God-given ability that he can be.”
In Tennessee’s first meeting with the Wildcats, Ament scored 17 points, while the Volunteers’ top scorer Ja’Kobi Gillespie (18.6 points per game) led the way with 24 points. Barnes’ team has dropped four straight regular-season meetings with its longtime SEC rival, and the veteran coach knows his group has to bring an edge to Lexington on Saturday.
“I just know this, if we don’t play hard for 40 minutes, we shouldn’t even drive up there,” Barnes said. “(Kentucky head coach) Mark (Pope) has done a really terrific job with his group, and they just took us apart in that second half.”
Kentucky (16-7, 7-3) appeared to be at a low point after starting 0-2 in conference play. Since the Wildcats’ home loss to Missouri on Jan. 7, Pope’s team has won seven of eight games, including a convincing 16-point win over Oklahoma on Wednesday.
The Wildcats have fully reemerged in the NCAA Tournament picture after beginning the year 5-4 and being booed off the court in Nashville following a 94-59 loss to Gonzaga in December.
A pair of returners have shouldered the load of late, as Otega Oweh’s 24 points and Brandon Garrison’s 20-point, 11-rebound double-double paced Kentucky’s impressive win against Oklahoma.
“I’m super proud of our guys. Really proud of the effort,” Pope said. “Really proud of B.G. stepping up and being great. Otega continues to play at an elite level. We got contributions from everybody.”
The Wildcats’ still rank 12th in the SEC in scoring at 81.9 points per game, but the offense is unrecognizable from its form in the nonconference.
“Just practicing over and over, a lot of meetings with our position coaches, just trying to get it right,” Garrison said of the improved offense. “I feel like everybody was on board trying to get the offense clicking, and we’ve just got to keep it rolling from here.”
Oweh leads Kentucky with 17 ppg, followed by Denzel Aberdeen’s 12.1 and Collin Chandler’s 9.4 average.
–Field Level Media
