Kentucky Wins Over Vanderbilt 71-62
By Peggy Gilligan
The team honored the late Kobe Bryant tonight by wearing shooting shirts with the Mamba logo on front and his numbers 8 and 24 on back as well as personal thoughts on their shoes. The Cats started the game with the ball and Tyrese Maxey hitting a three pointer. About five minutes into the game Nick Richards had to go to the bench with two “dumb” fouls as stated by Coach Calipari in the post game press conference. Vanderbilt tied the game at about the thirteen minute mark with two free throws by Martin Moyer. With six minutes left in the half Scotty Pippen Jr. hit a three point shot to give Vandy the lead 25-22. The rest of the half Kentucky was not able to catch up with Vanderbilt as they were hitting 40% from the three point line and 50% of their field goals. The first half ended with the Cats hitting 17% from three point line and 39% of their field goals and a seven point deficit of 35-28.
The first ten minutes of the second half was more of the same for the Wildcats falling behind by ten points with 18:22 left in the game. The turn around came at 8:33 left in the game when Immanuel Quickley hit two free throws to put the Cats up 53-52. The team didn’t look back after that and ran the lead to 11 points with 1:07 left in the game.
In Coach Calipari’s post game comments he said the team is player driven and it was Quickley’s suggestion for the lobs to Richardson late in the game, He also stated that E.J. Montgomery was in better shape but most important was that the team needs Nick for success and playing with three point guards is a big advantage.
Next up for the Cats is a road game at Auburn on Saturday at 6:00 on ESPN.
