The Kentucky Wildcats faced off against the No. 14 Mississippi State Bulldogs in a highly anticipated matchup. The Wildcats were looking to secure their first road win of the season, and the game didn’t disappoint in terms of excitement.

Kentucky came out strong, and Jaxson Robinson bounced back with 27 points after multiple tough games and it’s exactly what the Cats needed. The first half was tightly contested, both going back and forth.

In the second half, Kentucky managed to pull ahead thanks to some clutch shooting and better ball movement. Their defense also stepped up, limiting Mississippi State’s scoring opportunities and forcing turnovers.

Despite foul trouble, the Wildcats maintained their composure and executed their game plan effectively. Key players like Lamont Butler, Amari Williams, and Otega Oweh delivered standout performances, contributing both offensively and defensively.

As the game drew to a close, the Cats managed to hold on to their lead, securing a much-needed victory against a ranked opponent on the road. This win was crucial for Kentucky as they entered as a 5.5-point underdog and coming off an ugly defeat to the unranked (for now) Georgia Bulldogs.

It was a hard-fought game, and Kentucky’s ability to overcome their recent struggles and perform under pressure was a testament to their resilience and determination. The Cats are now 4-0 in the top-15 games.

Making this win even more special is that it was Mark Pope’s 200th victory as a college basketball head coach. Pope is now 200-111 as a head coach, including a 13-3 mark at Kentucky.

After the game, Pope and select players met with the media. Here is a recap of what they said via UK Athletics.

MP: “That’s a great win, and it’s like the 100th thing down the list. I’m just so happy for our guys. It’s our first road win. The only opportunity we had to win on the road are against ranked teams. So, it’s hard. This is a great venue. I waked in here I don’t know if this is the same building, but it feels exactly like the same building I played in.”

“I know Coach Jans. I’ve had a chance to coach against him a lot. He’s a great coach, and his team is a great team that’s played some unbelievable basketball. For our guys to come in here and just fight, fight, fight. We really answered some specific things that we’ve been struggling with. I’m really proud of our guys and really happy for our guys. They’re really happy. What an unbelievable night of basketball, it’s pretty special”

Q: What does it feel like to see that breakthrough for a player like Jaxson Robinson in this environment and the first SEC road win?

MP: “Jax, my goodness, it’s the best part of coaching actually. Just seeing guys grow and do things that they didn’t know they could do in times where they didn’t know if they could do it. When you get to be a part of that, it’s really special.”

“Jax is unbelievable. He’s had a really tough week. He had a lot of frustration and a lot of things that he was concerned about and a lot of stress in his life. From basketball, off the court, everywhere. He came to me this morning. We talked a couple of days ago, and he’s been unbelievable in practice the last few days. His voice, his energy, his juice and his freshness. He told me this morning ‘I’ve been worried about making shots and missing shots. I’m worried about my future, and I’m worried about all the things. I know I just want to go compete and go play and let all that stuff take care of itself.’ When you get a guy, a young guy, who can get himself to that place, and you see performances like tonight. I’m telling you, it’s thrilling to watch.”

“I’m so happy for him. He’s done this before, but he hasn’t done it on this big of stage. He hasn’t done it in this league, this way, against a ranked team on the road. But he’s done it now.”

Q: Is that the best you’ve seen him play?

MP: “I’ve seen him play some great basketball, but I would put it this way, you see the kids play great as eighth graders. You see him play great as a senior in high school. You see him play great in all the places. Then, you see him like he’s a pinnacle, and he’s wearing a Kentucky jersey. When he came to do that in Kentucky jersey in the toughest league in America against a top 15 team. They’re ranked 25th defensive. I put them as a top 10 defensive team. With some current frustration and carrying frustration into it, I’ve never seen him do all that before. It’s pretty awesome.”

Q: How do you keep that confidence rolling and want to ride the waves and not call a time out?

MP: “It’s so interesting because you always want to have one [time out] in your pocket, at least for late. I’ve been there sometimes, you’re just like ‘ah’, and I’ve got a lot of faith in our guys that we could figure it out.”

“But we’re balancing a lot. Amari [Williams] played massive minutes in the second half, and he had a huge assignment. So, we ended up buying him a minute just with substitution, which could have gone either way. And Lamont Butler is just giving everything he’s got out there. We’re kind of dense with that. But when you have guys like we do that are as tough as we are. These are tough kids, man. They’re tough, and they’re tough because they’ll fight physically. But they’re tough because they fight so hard to be dialed in on what’s happening, and they’re getting better and better. They’re understanding more and more, and it’s a tough group. No one else has done that this year. No one else has come in here [to Mississippi State] and won. It takes a tough group to do it. That’s what we got, We got a tough group.”

Q: How crazy was that sequence and just see him [Ansley Almonor] fire and fire and fire and laugh off?

MP: “This Ansley Almonor is really special because he came here understanding what he was walking into. He came here understanding that Andrew Carr was sitting there, and the roster was almost done. He’s like, I’m coming in, where I want to come and I want to find a way to win games. You probably remember me saying this. I’ve said this so many times. I’m telling you, Ansley Almonor is a perfect fit for how we play, and he’s going to win us some games.”

“I love when players make coaches look really smart because we’re not. Sometimes, they make us look smart, and Ansley did that. What a brilliant performance from him. I’m telling you, that’s why you come to Kentucky because you can’t find, I don’t care if you’re a 100 times over billionaire, you can never, ever buy what Ansley Almonor just did and what he just experienced. Never. There’s no money. There’s nothing that can buy it. It’s just the blood, sweat equity and the courage to actually come here and then step up and do it. There’s only one way to get it, and it’s to do everything he’s done to get here. It’s just like, I’m so happy for him. It was fun, man. That was super fun. I know BBN [Big Blue Nation] was going crazy.”

Q: For Andrew Carr to gut it out the way that he did and step up and hit big shots and ones, what kind of difference did he make?

MP: “Andrew Carr, wow, we talked a lot the last couple of days. He hasn’t practiced yet, and he hasn’t done anything. A ton of credit to Brandon Wells and Randy Towner, our performance team, for even making it possible that he could play. We sat down and had a long talk yesterday. He’s feeling so much stress because he’s like, ‘I don’t want to be out there if I’m not helping the team, but I want to help the team so bad.’ Then, you look at him. It’s the second straight game where he can’t sit down during timeouts. He made it through his shootaround today. So, we came and said, ‘Let’s go through warmups before the game and just see.’ Then, he got through warmups. He’s like, ‘I think I’m okay to try.’ Every rotation, I’m making an eye contact with Brandon Wells. I’m like, ‘What are you thinking? Can we do more? Do we need to shut it down? Where are we?’ And Andrew ended up making huge plays, man. Huge plays, not just because he got a couple of and-1s, but because he got some guys in foul trouble that really helped us. He’s a tough kid, man. He’s a warrior. He’s a really tough kid, he loves our team.”

Q: What was the change of momentum after Josh Hubbard got four fouls? Then, he comes back in, but he doesn’t make those Josh Hubbard type shots, do you breathe a sigh of relief there?

MP: “Well, he made a whole bunch of them [shots]. It’s not like he didn’t make a lot of them. He’s a really special player. They have some really special players. I’m telling you, this is Cameron Matthews is a special player, too. I never really know the dynamics in the other team’s locker room, but I would guess their guys love playing with him, too. But it’s a terrific team. This Mississippi State team is really good. They guard different, and they make it really hard. What a fun battle this was tonight.”

Q: Your team is 3-0 in bounce back games after a loss. What is that identity for your team to be able to respond to a loss the way they have been?

MP: “It’s our guys. They care, our guys care … I wish everybody could get to know these kids. Amari Williams is an incredibly special young man. He’s got a heart that is probably three times the size of a normal human’s heart. He loves our guys, and he loves this team. You feel it, he’s got this protective thing where he wants to take care of our guys. He wants to fight for our guys. He did the pregame speech today. It was only two sentences. The first was ‘I just hope you guys know how much I love you.’ You could feel it in the locker room man. I got emotional because I know how much he loves us, and I know how much we love him. When you have a team that’s put together that way – that wears Kentucky across their chest. These guys are going to come fight for you. We’re not going to be perfect. We’re going to have hard times, for sure. But these guys want to represent Kentucky. They want it so bad. They want to take care of each other so badly. It makes it fun to coach, man”

Guard Jaxson Robinson and Center Amari Williams

Q: What does it feel like to get that confidence up and go through the best version of you?

JR: “I can’t thank these guys enough, my coaches, especially after last game. It was tough for me, but I knew I just had to move on. Coach talked about just moving on to the next game. Confidence is where it is. I put in the work the whole summer and into the season. So, tonight, I was able to show it.”

Q: What goes through your mind when you feel yourself heating up?

JR: “My teammates help open shots for me. I felt good so that was really all.”

Q: Amari, what went through your head as you watched him [Jaxson Robinson]?

AW: “Like you said, finding the ball. He had a great game. The second half, everything was going for him. So you know, I was helping him get shots.”

Q: How proud of him are you?

AW: “As a team, we all know Jax. We all know how hard he works. Just making sure that he knows that. Seeing him today made us all proud. Just knowing that he was back was big for us.”

Q: What was the pregame speech like?

AW: “It was basically to tell the guys I loved them, really. They’re my brothers. Ever since I’ve been there, they’ve always been in my corner, all the trips we’ve been on. A lot of people tried to say we were soft the past few games. So, just coming into this game trying to change that.”

Team Records and Series Notes

• Kentucky is now 13-3, 2-1 in the Southeastern Conference. Mississippi State is 14-2 overall, 2-1 in league play.
• Kentucky leads the series 104-21, including 40-12 in Starkville
• Mark Pope is 200-111 as head coach, including 13-3 at Kentucky.
• Next for Kentucky: the Wildcats return home to face Texas A&M on Tuesday, Jan. 14. Game time is set for 7 p.m. and will air on ESPN2.

Team Notes

• The Cats improve to 4-0 this season against AP Top-15 opponents. The four wins against teams ranked inside the top 15 are the most in the country
• Kentucky scored at least 95 points for the seventh time this season and the second time in three games in conference play. UK is 7-0 in these games
• The Wildcats were 16-of-32 from beyond the 3-point arc. The 16 made threes were the second most in a game this season for UK, and the most ever by the team against Mississippi State. It marks the second time this season that UK has shot at least 50 percent from deep (Louisville)
• UK is 10-0 this season when making double-digit 3s
• The Wildcats finished with 21 assists on 34 made field goals – an assist rate of 61.8 percent
• Six players scored in double figures for the Wildcats for the fourth time this season. UK is 4-0 in these games.

Player Notes

• Jaxson Robinson led all scorers with a season-high 27 points, including 16 in the first half. Robinson made 7-of-10 from 3-point range, a season-high in made 3s and tied for the most by a Kentucky player ever against Mississippi State (Dontaie Allen)
• Otega Oweh had 15 points and has scored in double figures in every game this season. Oweh also added a season-high eight rebounds and led the team with two steals. He has multiple steals in nine games this season including four straight
• Amari Williams posted his third double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Williams also dished out six assists, matching his career-high, and had two blocked shots
• Andrew Carr finished with 13 points and six rebounds. He has scored in double figures in 12 of 16 games this season.
• Ansley Almonor buried a season-high three triples, all in the second half, and finished with 11 points, his fourth game this season in double-figures
• Lamont Butler tied his career high in assists with eight, which was set against Florida. Butler has 19 assists across the first three SEC games of the season. He also added 10 points on the night and went without a turnover.
• Koby Brea has made a 3-pointer in every game this season and 31-straight contests overall
• Travis Perry has made a 3-pointer in three straight games

In the First Half

• Kentucky’s starters were Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, Otega Oweh, Andrew Carr and Amari Williams. UK has a 11-3 record with this lineup
• Ansley Almonor was the first substitutions at 16:42
• After a quick start from the Bulldogs, Kentucky went on a 7-0 run for its first lead at 12-11 on a layup by Almonor
• Jaxson Robinson scored 16 points in the first half to lead all scorers
• It was a back-and-forth first half featuring six ties and 11 lead changes. Bulldogs led by as many as six points, UK’s largest lead was also six
• Kentucky’s 49 points scored in the first half was the team’s most ever at Humphrey Coliseum

In the Second Half

• Kentucky began the second half with the starters.
• The Wildcats began the second half on a 5-0 run to open up a 10-point lead
• A three from Brandon Garrison put Kentucky ahead by 14, 68-54, with 15:16 to go, matching UK’s largest lead
• Mississippi State would go on a 12-0 run to cut the lead to two with 12:19 remaining, and eventually knotted the game at 71 with 10:46 on the clock
• Bulldogs took their first lead of the second half with 8:17 to go on a 3-pointer from Claudell Harris Jr.
• Two-straight 3s from Ansley Almonor and a basket by Otega Oweh put the Cats up 86-80
• Mississippi State cut the lead to one with 2:00 minutes to go but could not overtake UK