Kentucky basketball parlays two big runs to Colgate victory, awaits rival Louisville next

Posted by Admin December 12, 2024 Basketball

LEXINGTON — Two stretches, both seven minutes in length (give or take a few seconds each way), saved Kentucky basketball on Wednesday.

The first: The Wildcats scored the contest’s first 17 points. The second: In the second half, they ripped off a 17-2 run just before the 15-minute mark that ended with 7:33 to play.

In between those two stretches, Colgate outscored UK by 21 points, 65-44.

In the end, No. 5 Kentucky pulled away for a 78-67 win at Rupp Arena.

But the 11-point victory wasn’t nearly as decisive as expected. Not when the Wildcats (9-1) jumped to a 17-0 lead. And not when the Raiders (2-9) came in as 30 ½-point underdogs, entering on a four-game losing streak.

Even Kentucky coach Mark Pope admitted something was off Wednesday.

“We had some weird energy,” Pope said during the opening statement of his postgame news conference. “There was all kinds of weirdness. The 17-0 (start to the game) was a little weird. I think it made it weirder. And then we got weird, but our guys rang the bell the way that they do.”

Pope described his program as one constantly monitoring players’ energy. He and his coaching staff try to manage, and harness, that energy as best as they can. So, the massive swings in momentum — and emotion — Wednesday were discussion points during the game. And afterward in the winning locker room.

“Why the energy kind of got off? I don’t know if it was because of the 17-0 (start). Maybe was because (Colgate) made some really good shots,” Pope said. “Maybe there was a little fatigue. Maybe it’s the rotation difference.”

Another reason Pope offered: UK was missing two pieces Wednesday in injured point guards Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa.

“Usually it’s all those things somehow, right?” Pope said. “A little different lineups on the floor. But that’s this game for us. And so we’re trying to become masters of energy, and games like this can help you learn a little bit more about yourself. Hopefully they’re helping us.”

The absence of UK’s top two point guards didn’t affect the club early on, when Colgate failed to put a point on the board until the 13:20 mark of the first half.

And 13 minutes later, that lead almost had entirely evaporated.

Colgate’s Parker Jones swished a 3 as time expired to cut UK’s advantage to 38-36 at the break.

“It’s hard to point (to). There could be a whole bunch of things,” Kentucky fifth-year senior forward Andrew Carr said, trying to decipher what went wrong as the visitors made their run before intermission. “But maybe a little bit of a loss of focus and things like that. … Of course, they switched the zone a little bit, and we started missing some shots — even at the rim.”

The Raiders kept up their momentum out of halftime, as the lead changed hands six times before the Wildcats put away the visitors for good thanks to the 17-2 mid-half run.

“It seemed like they would see one or two go in, and they started making other tougher shots,” Carr said. “So, credit to them.”

Keeping up the energy level shouldn’t be an issue for UK in its next game, when the latest installment of the in-state rivalry with Louisville will take center stage at 5:15 p.m. Saturday in Lexington.

“I think we play the best when we’re playing with a lot of swag,” Carr said. “And you can see it — you can see our energy on the court when we’re playing our best.

“And so, you look back on our last couple of games, it felt like in the first half of those games, we struggle a little bit more with our energy, and then (we’re) able to kind of find it a little bit more in the second half. We always try to focus on our energy.”

Music to Pope’s ears. Without that commitment, the Wildcats won’t develop into the great team he so desperately seeks to deliver to the Bluegrass State.

“We want to keep getting better. And we had runs tonight where we got better. We started the game better, and then the energy just turned a little bit on us. … We’ll get better,” Pope said. “Right now, it’s a race to get better. But this is Kentucky. We have to win every game along the way. That’s a beautiful thing. I’m not complaining.

“I think it’s why Kentucky is special.”

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.