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UK MEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME NOTES
MOUNT ST. MARY‘S at KENTUCKY
RUPP ARENA | LEXINGTON, KY.
NOV. 16, 2021
ATTENDANCE: 18,227
Final Score: No. 13/11 Kentucky 80, Mount St. Mary’s 55
Team Records and Series Notes
- Kentucky moved above .500 with its second consecutive win to get to 2-1. Mount St. Mary’s dropped to 1-3 this season.
- UK now leads the series 3-0, including 2-0 in games in Lexington, Kentucky.
- This was the second of three straight games in the Kentucky Classic, a multi-team event.
- Next up: Kentucky will wrap up its Kentucky Classic participation when it hosts Ohio on Friday at 7 p.m. in Rupp Arena. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
Team Notes
- By holding Mount St. Mary’s to 55 points, UK is now 80-0 under head coach John Calipari when limiting the opponent to 55 or fewer.
- Kentucky limited Mount St. Mary’s to 34.0% from the field, UK’s best defensive percentage of the young season. UK is 211-24 (89.8%) under Calipari when keeping the opponent to 40% or less.
- UK shot 53.1% from the field, a second consecutive game with better than a 50% clip.
- The Wildcats made all eight of their free throws and has made 15 of 16 over the last two games.
- UK won the rebounding 41-27. The Wildcats have won all three games on the backboards by an average of 14 per game.
- Kentucky dominated points in the paint, 46-16, and led 13-4 in fast break points.
Player Notes
- Oscar Tshiebwe continued his early season dominance with a career-high 24 points and 16 rebounds for his third straight double-double to open the 2021-22 year.
- Tshiebwe’s 56 rebounds are the most by a Wildcat over three games to start a career since at least 1956-57 (as far back as comprehensive box scores go).
- It was his 15th career double-double.
- Tshiebwe is the first Wildcat with three straight double-doubles since PJ Washington did it in January and February of 2019 and the first UK player with three straight to start a career since Julius Randle opened his Kentucky career with seven straight in the 2013-14 season.
- He is the first Wildcat with at least 20 points and at least 15 rebounds in a game since Nick Richards posted 25 points and 15 boards vs. Fort Wayne on Nov. 22, 2017.
- He was 11 of 14 from the floor, a career high for field goals made.
- He also had three blocks for a second time this season.
- TyTy Washington Jr. had the best game of his young UK career with 16 points.
- He made 7 of 12 from the floor, including two 3-pointers.
- He added three assists.
- Sahvir Wheeler just missed out on a double-double with 12 points and eight assists.
- His 30 assists through his first three games as a Wildcat are the most by any UK player to start a career.
- Keion Brooks Jr. reached double-figure scoring for the second straight game with 10 points in addition to seven rebounds.
- Kellan Grady added eight points with two 3-pointers.
- Jacob Toppin (shoulder) and Lance Ware (ankle) did not play because of injury. Both are day-to-day.
- Toppin also missed the home opener vs. Robert Morris.
Coach Calipari
- Calipari improved to 341-94 at UK.
- Calipari has a 786-234 all-time on-court record.
- UK is 277-55 in games vs. unranked Associated Press competition.
- Calipari is 2-0 in his career vs. Mount St. Mary’s
In the First Half
- Kentucky started Sahvir Wheeler, TyTy Washington Jr., Kellan Grady, Keion Brooks Jr. and Oscar Tshiebwe for the third straight game and is now 2-1 with that lineup.
- Tshiebwe picked up right where he left off in the first two games with a jumper on the Wildcats’ opening possession and scored 10 of UK’s first 16 points.
- Four of his first five field goals were on jumpers.
- Daimion Collins was the first sub of the game at the 17:38 mark.
- Mount St. Mary’s opened the game strong with a 7-4 lead and hung tough for much of the first half. The Wildcats began to separate just a bit at 25-18 after a layup by Brooks at 8:19 to take a 25-18 lead, part of a 9-3 run.
- Just as it looked like the Wildcats were primed to pull away with a 29-20 lead after a Washington layup, MSM answered with five quick points to cut the deficit to 29-25 and force Calipari to burn a timeout with 4:02 left in the half.
- Kentucky responded with a 9-2 run to close the half, capped by Washington’s second 3-pointer of the half.
- UK led 38-27 at halftime.
- Tshiebwe was dominant again. He scored 14 points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked two shots in the opening half.
- He was 6 of 7 from the floor.
- Washington played the best half of his young career with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including his first two career 3-pointers at Kentucky.
In the Second Half
- Kentucky started the second half with the same starting five: Wheeler, Washington, Grady, Brooks and Tshiebwe.
- The Wildcats scored four quick points out of halftime with a Wheeler layup and a Tshiebwe dunk on a slick feed from Wheeler. Mount St. Mary’s called timeout 43 seconds into the half.
- The timeout did not slow down the Wildcats, who reeled off 13 straight points to begin the second half before MSM’s Josh Reaves ended the run with a 3 at the 15:55 mark.
- Before the trey, the run had extended what was a 33-27 lead with 1:52 in the first half to a 51-27 Kentucky advantage at the 16:15 mark of the second half, an 18-0 stretch.
- Another 8-0 run extended Kentucky’s lead to 61-32 with 13:09 to go.
- The Wildcats’ largest lead was 70-39 (31 points) with 7:24 to play.
- MSM answered with nine straight points.
- Tshiebwe paced the Cats in the second stanza with 10 points and nine rebounds.
- All eight of Grady’s points came in the second half.
Next Game
Kentucky vs Troy (On time)
