The Kentucky Wildcats beat the Tennessee Volunteers in Lexington on Tuesday night by a score of 75-64.

The Cats were shorthanded once again, but that didn’t slow them down to start. Kentucky shot the lights out in the first half, led by Harlan’s very own Trent Noah. More on that below, but a stifling defensive effort and barrage of threes helped Kentucky take a 33-26 lead into the half.

After the break, Mark Pope’s squad almost fell apart. The Vols slowly clawed their way back into it, and before you knew it, Tennessee had its first lead since 9-8 with just seven minutes to go.

However, Kentucky did what it usually does and answered with a 12-2 run of its own to end this game before Rick Barnes could blink.

Make no mistake about it: Given all of the immense adversity these Cats faced and still managed to pull off the W, this was about as gritty of a win in the program’s long history.

Next up, the Cats will travel to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns on Saturday night.

The injury saga continues

Jaxson Robinson helped lead the Cats to victory in Knoxville a couple of weeks ago while Lamont Butler was out. This time, Butler was ready to go, but Robinson wasn’t able to play due to a nagging wrist injury.

Robinson injured his wrist in practice last Friday, and it was clearly affecting him during the South Carolina game. At one point, a defender came down hard on his wrist, and he writhed in pain. It didn’t come as a surprise that he was absent for this one.

However, he was missed. Robinson is not only Kentucky’s best scorer, but he shut down Tennessee’s Zakai Ziegler last time out and played great in the win. Of course, Kentucky was fortunate to have Butler back in this one to replace the defensive production, but there’s no one on this team able to create shots like J-Rob does.

Robinson had just started playing his best ball of the season, so his absence didn’t come at an ideal time, but everyone would rather have him healthy for the long term than for one game, no matter how big.

Equally bad, Butler reinjured his shoulder in the second half and was unable to return. The heart of this Kentucky team had played very well in this game, especially on the defensive end. Let’s just hope the senior guards get healthy and make their returns soon.

The Kentucky kids hate UT

Trent Noah and Travis Perry have played sparingly during their freshmen seasons, but they both made their presence known in this game as both reached career scoring highs.

Noah scored five points in just nine minutes the last time these two teams met, but he easily exceeded that total in just eight first-half minutes this time around. The Harlan County native hit three deep balls on just four attempts on his way to nine first-half points.

On the other hand, Perry didn’t score at all against Tennessee last time out, even with the increased playing time due to Butler’s absence. That wasn’t the case in this one. Perry knocked down a couple of threes of his own and also hit a nice running floater in the lane.

The Mountain Mamba and the Lyon County native have both shown plenty of flashes early on in their college careers, albeit in small doses. Neither of them is a good defender at this stage, they can’t really create their own shot, and they’re definitely not the most athletic. With all that being said, they both hustle like it just means more to them, and they can shoot it as good as anyone when they get even the smallest of windows to get a shot off.

In a year or two, both of these guys will be the lifeblood of the UK basketball team. For now, it’s always exciting to watch a Kentucky kid ball out, but it’s even sweeter when it’s against the Vols.

Carr disappoints, while BG and Almonor step up

Andrew Carr really hasn’t been the same player since his back injury. He was once the X-factor of this Kentucky team, but he’s been more of a negative than a positive since his return. He hasn’t even made his way back to the starting lineup, despite a couple of poor performances from Ansley Almonor.

Speaking of Almonor, he hit his first three tonight since the Arkansas game after going scoreless for more than 40 minutes over the last two games. For good measure, the Fairleigh Dickinson transfer hit two threes on his way to a double-digit scoring night.

Finally, Brandon Garrison has really shown signs of life over the last two games. BG scored 15 points against South Carolina last Saturday, and he played really well in this game. That was especially important as Amari Williams dealt with foul trouble.

The Cats know what they’re getting from four of the starting five almost every time out, but where they can really take the next step is some consistency from the rest of the guys.

No excuses. A massive win for Mark Pope and Kentucky.

Go Cats!