Kentucky’s comeback attempt comes up short in 74-69 road loss to Vanderbilt

Kentucky nearly overcame a 14-point halftime deficit, but far too many turnovers down the stretch cost the Wildcats.

On Saturday in Nashville, the Vanderbilt Commodores (16-4; 4-3 SEC) upset No. 9 Kentucky (14-5; 3-3 SEC) inside Memorial Gym by a final score of 74-69. After playing arguably its worst half of the entire season to start this game, Kentucky’s offense set the building on fire in the second half. A 14-point hole turned into a seven-point lead until Vanderbilt locked up the ‘Cats in the final minutes and snuck out the victory.

Kentucky was without starting forward Andrew Carr due to a back injury, but UK had more than enough opportunities to win this game. Credit to them for fighting back after such a terrible opening half, but a flurry of bad decisions late mounted a pile too high. Otega Oweh is not excluded from some of those mistakes, but he was the only reason UK had a chance. He finished with 21 points (8-14 FG) and 12 rebounds for this first double-double of the season.

Ansley Almonor (12 points on 4-5 3PT) and Jaxson Robinson (11 points on 3-5 3PT) were the only other Wildcats to reach double-figures. Kentucky shot 60 percent from the field in the second half, but 17 turnovers for the game marked a season-high. Vanderbilt shot 12-33 from deep with only five turnovers.

The crowd might have been mostly Kentucky, but the first half was mostly Vanderbilt. The Commodores outhustled and outshot the Wildcats in every aspect throughout the opening 20 minutes. Vanderbilt went 7-18 from deep while forcing UK into 10 turnovers. At one point, the ‘Cats turned the ball over five times across eight possessions. They had five turnovers in the final five minutes as Vanderbilt finished the half on a 20-4 run.

Kentucky was out of sorts and completely disoriented from the opening tip. Despite 10 very quick points from Vandy’s Jason Edwards, the score was actually close early on. The ‘Cats even led with roughly eight minutes left until the break. But Vanderbilt controlled every ounce of momentum from there. The ‘Dores attempted nine more first-half shots (38 to 29) and had UK looking like a team that hadn’t played a single game together.

Vanderbilt took a commanding 41-27 lead into the intermission — the fewest points scored in a half this season by UK. The ‘Cats shot 37.9 percent from the field and 4-14 from deep. Something had to change in the locker room. Luckily, it did early on.

Kentucky opened the second half by scoring eight unanswered points in the first two minutes, forcing Vanderbilt into a timeout. It was off to the races from there. At the first media break, UK had cut the Commodore lead down to 49-44. Kentucky’s offensive onslaught continued as Robinson’s three-pointer tied the game 51-51 going into the second media timeout.

A Lamont Butler layup then gave the ‘Cats its first lead since the middle of the first half. Kentucky went up by as many seven points as the energy of this game was flipped entirely on its head. It was a 31-13 run through the first 12 minutes of the second half as Kentucky went ahead 58-54. But Vanderbilt refused to go away. Some untimely mistakes for UK allowed the ‘Dores to take a 66-63 lead into the final media timeout.

The mistakes continued to mount for Kentucky too. A scoring drought of over three minutes mixed with more turnovers to close the game ended any chance of a last-ditch comeback effort. For the first time all season, the ‘Cats have dropped two games in a row. Up next is another road game as UK faces No. 6 Tennessee on Tuesday. The SEC schedule is only going to get tougher.