Cats make a statement in win over Tar Heels
12-22-18
By: Brock Gilligan
(CHICAGO, ILL) Kentucky coming off their big win at home against Utah last week take their biggest test since the season opener against Duke. Hoping to get some revenge from the 2017 NCAA Tournament Sweet Sixteen exit at the hands of the North Carolina Tar Heels. Those two teams faced off twice that season splitting the series with Carolina winning the more important of them and going on to win the National Title. That game in March was won at the last second by now senior Luke Maye who comes into this game being one of the Cats biggest worries on the defensive end along with graduate transfer Cameron Johnson averaging a combined 31 points per game. Kentucky will look to get continued production from Keldon Johnson and Reid Travis along with some improved shooting from Tyler Herro who is averaging 12.1 points a game but only shooting 28% from behind the arc. The Cats are on the middle of “Camp Cal” and will look to showcase some defensive improvements as forcing the Tar Heels to shoot the deep ball seems to be the way to beat them as they only shoot 36% from three in losses as well as their turnover margin flipping from +3 in wins to -3 in losses.
The first half of the game started out like a track meet with the score being knotted at 13 at the first media timeout. It became obvious very quickly that these teams were not messing around and wanted to run the brakes off the opponent. Also we were in store for a very exciting matchup of Reid Travis and Luke Maye with Travis pacing the Cats in scoring with 16 at halftime. Kentucky needed to do two things to have a chance in the game; shoot the three ball and play defense. They were not afraid to come out firing as they took 15 attempts in the first half, but they only made four. The defence came out hot with 10 turnovers for Carolina at the intermission, but they also committed the same amount to counteract all the work done on the defensive end. With all that being said they led at the half 40-31 and kept the Tar Heels out of the bonus with six team fouls in the half.
The second half was a slow start for the Cats as Carolina cut the Kentucky lead down to six points with Kentucky missing shots and turning the ball over. Lucky for the Cats, Ashton Hagans came to play tonight, posting a statline of seven points, four rebounds, three assists and blocks, and had a game high seven steals. He was a all purpose player and did everything for the Cats tonight. Kentucky got production from every player in the second half and had an answer for every basket that the Tar Heels had in store. Sure Kentucky could have shot the ball better from behind the arc, going nine of 26, but their defense was at a level tonight it didn’t matter how badly they shot it. This team is returning to the form they showed us in August on their Bahamas trip. Tonight they were shooting the ball freely, playing good defense, running the floor, and having fun on the court. The most absurd stat of the night though was Kentucky’s starting five scored 74 of the teams 80 they need to take the victory 80-72 over the Tar Heels.
Kentucky improves to 9-2 and move on in their next game to play state rival Louisville next Saturday at the YUM! Center. North Carolina falls to 8-3 and will host Davidson in their next game on the 29th.