KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — It looked like more of the same in Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The score less than three minutes in? Tennessee 8, Kentucky 0.
The final score? Kentucky 63, Tennessee 56.
That’s a Volunteers team that came into the day ranked No. 5 in the country.
What?
It was a most improbable result, both in the grand sense of Kentucky’s basketball season to this point and the manner in which this one started.
The reeling Cats dug out of another early hole — falling behind has been an ongoing problem this season — to play perhaps their most impressive half of basketball to date, going into the locker room at halftime with a 33-26 lead.
UK’s lead grew to nine points when Oscar Tshiebwe scored the first bucket of the second half.
From there, it was a dogfight between the two Southeastern Conference rivals.
As Kentucky struggled to score — just two made baskets in the first 10 minutes after halftime — the Vols slowly clawed their way back into striking distance.
Tennessee tied the game with 10:26 left and took its first lead of the second half on Zakai Zeigler’s layup with 9:30 on the clock.
Kentucky took the lead right back 59 seconds later on an Antonio Reeves 3-pointer, and neither team led by more than a possession until Kentucky found a scoring flurry out of the final TV timeout of the game. By the end of that run, the Cats led 58-50.
Things got interesting from there — UT had the ball twice in the final minute with a chance to tie or take the lead — but Kentucky never trailed again.
Tshiebwe recorded another double-double, finishing with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Reeves (18 points) and CJ Fredrick (13) joined him in scoring in double figures.
The Wildcats were playing without starting point guard Sahvir Wheeler and reserve forward Daimion Collins, who both missed the game with injuries. Wheeler (shoulder) warmed up with the team but was ruled out just minutes before tipoff. Collins (foot) was ruled out earlier Saturday morning.
Cason Wallace (back) and Jacob Toppin (shoulder) had both been questionable heading into Saturday’s game, but both were in the UK starting lineup, which also featured Fredrick, Chris Livingston and Tshiebwe.
Kentucky was a 10.5-point underdog just before tipoff. The Cats had finished on the wrong side of the Vegas spread in their previous 10 games.
UK had five previous games against NCAA “Quad 1” opponents — a stat to signify the toughest competition a team can face — and the Wildcats lost every one of those games, the past four by double digits. Last weekend, now-No. 4 Alabama beat Kentucky by 26 points. Three days after that, the Cats lost on their home court to South Carolina, the SEC’s worst-rated team.
Tennessee was No. 2 in the NCAA’s NET ratings coming into the game. UK was 65th.
