Wildcats don’t miss in first 11 minutes,
use stifling defense to blowout Tennessee

(Box Score)

In their first meeting with Tennessee, UK had trouble with Volunteers’ physicality.

That wasn’t an issue in the rematch Tuesday.

UK converted its first 11 field goal attempts and shot 68.4 percent (13-19) from the field in the first half to earn a 69-44 win versus Tennessee.

“We were really good defensively,” said UK head coach John Calipari. “The way we scored the ball in the first half, we were able to create a gap.”

UK held Tennessee to a season-low 28.1 shooting percentage (16-57) in the game, and held its third consecutive opponent to fewer than 50 points for the first time since the 1950-51 season.

“We’re getting better and better,” said freshman forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. “Our defensive intensity is crazy right now.”

UK did not miss a shot until the 8:57 mark in the first half, jumping out to a 26-11 lead. During that stretch, it felt like the team couldn’t miss, Kidd-Gilchrist said.

“Everything was going in,” said freshman point guard Marquis Teague. “We were playing good defense, making them turn it over. I think our defense was helping our offense really. We just wanted to keep the pressure on them.”

During UK’s early run, players from both team had to be separated after a Tennessee foul was followed by some pushing and shoving. Kidd-Gilchrist wasn’t sure exactly what happened in the scrum.

“I don’t even know what happened,” he said. “Just a lot of chit chat.”

Kidd-Gilchrist said the Wildcats’ early intensity resulted partially from the team’s Saturday game versus LSU in which a Tiger player was ejected for a flagrant foul against freshman forward Anthony Davis.

“That and that (first) Tennessee game,” he said. “It was just crazy the last game we played them.”

“LSU was rougher than this game, and it was allowed to be rougher,” Calipari said. “This game was not allowed to be rougher.”

Davis said UK is better prepared to handle other teams’ physicality than earlier in the season.

“We are always up for a challenge,” he said. “We know a lot of teams are going to try to play physical. We just got to negate the physicality.”

Davis led UK with 18 points, eight rebounds and seven blocks. Kidd-Gilchrist scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Sophomore forward Terrence Jones scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds.

After watching UK’s performance against LSU and Tennessee other teams may not try to push his team around, Calipari said.

“Hopefully people watched tonight and know that kind of game plan — even if it’s not coach-wise, it’s player wise — and saying ‘You know it’s hard to play them that way,’” he said.

While his team has made strides dealing with physical play in recent weeks, Calipari said there is still room for improvement.

“We’ve got a long way to go with that,” he said. “But we’ve made strides.

“We’re not going to be pitching shutouts now, so I’m happy with the team. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to keep improving.”

Photos by Mark Boxley.