Terrence Jones’ 52 points highlight
offense-heavy Blue-White scrimmage

It wasn’t quite Jodie Meeks scoring 54 points against Tennessee, but University of Kentucky sophomore forward Terrence Jones put on a performance for the record books in Wednesday’s Blue-White scrimmage.

Jones, who started and played all 40 minutes for the Blue team, finished the exhibition with 52 points, 16 rebounds, six assists, two steals and one block. His 52 points were the most by any UK player in the annual scrimmage, surpassing Brandon Knight’s 37 points in last season’s game.

“When I told you yesterday that he changed his habits, he changed his body — conditioning wise — he changed his skill set and he changed his approach toward practicing and conditioning, that’s why you see the change,” said UK head coach John Calipari of Jones.

Jones paced the offense-heavy scrimmage, but several other Wildcats turned in memorable performances in the Blue team’s 126-104 win.

Sophomore guard Doron Lamb scored 31 points for the Blue team, and his freshman teammate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist scored 21 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out seven assists.

On the White team, freshman forward Anthony Davis scored 27 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while freshman forward Kyle Wiltjer scored 17 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and hit five three-point baskets. Senior guard Darius Miller added 24 points for the White team, and freshman point guard Marquis Teague scored 19 points and tallied eight assists.

“I bet you we’d be really good against the Washington Generals right now, doing the weave and all the other stuff,” Calipari said, referring to the Harlem Globetrotters classic opponent. “We’ve got to be a great defensive team, and we’re not right now.”

“We know we’re going to have to pick it up defensively,” Miller said. “We didn’t play a lot of defense tonight. We know that’s going to be one of our key points. We feel like we can be one of the best defensive teams in the nation.”

Despite the offensive outburst, Calipari was quick to point out the numerous areas where he said his team needs to improve.

“Everybody is excited because you saw a lot off high-flying, dunking, blocking, flying, tipping. That doesn’t win though,” he said. “We’ve got to play basketball. We’ve got to be a great team, and we’re not right now. We’re not a very good defensive team.”

While UK looks for ways to improve, fans will still likely be focused on the performance from Jones. His 52-point total would have been the third-highest single game total in UK history had the performance come in an actual game.

The offensive outburst was nothing new for Jones, who said he once scored 61 points in middle school and scored 50 as recently as his senior year of high school.

What was the key to his performance Wednesday?

“I was just playing and just pretending it was practice really,” he said.

It’s practice where Calipari will try to make those improvement before the first regular season game on Nov. 11.

“I like my team,” he said. “Hopefully everybody gets excited and says ‘wow we can be good, but we’ve got a long way to go.’”

(Box Score)

Photos by Mark Boxley.