Kentucky Wildcats first-year guard Lamont Butler, a grad transfer from San Diego State, missed Saturday night’s game against the Gonzaga Bulldogs with a right ankle injury. It’s the same ankle Butler injured in Tuesday night’s loss against Clemson.

Coming into Saturday, head coach Mark Pope was very hopeful that Butler would play, but it was clear during the shootaround that it wasn’t going to happen.

”He (Butler) came to shoot around today, and we kind of just tried to push it a little bit, but it just wasn’t working,” said Pope. “I do think Lamont is making good progress.”

Butler is averaging a career-best 12.9 points per game through eight games this season. He’s also shooting 55.1% from the field and dishing out 3.9 assists per game.

“His numbers are unbelievable. I’m super proud of him,” Pope said Thursday about Butler. “For a fifth-year guy, he’s been really willing to grow and kind of adopt some things for us and try some new things and the numbers progress he’s made in the first eight games is incredible.”

Butler’s absence was felt in the first half when Gonzaga raced out to a 50-34 halftime lead.

Thankfully, Kentucky was able to pull off the win, and part of that came from the contributions from backup point guard Kerr Kriia. He finished the win over Gonzaga with eight points on 3/7 shooting (2/5 from deep), three rebounds, and four assists vs. just one turnover.

Unfortunately, Kriisa left the game with a lower-leg injury about halfway through the second half and never returned. Pope later said it was a “foot/ankle” injury for the senior.

“Kerr, we’ll go get some imaging as soon as we get back and kind of see where he stands,” said Pope while later adding, “Kerr is tough as nails, so it will take a lot to keep him out.”

During UK’s postgame celebration, Kriisa was seen in significant pain in the locker room.

With both players out for much of the second half and overtime, Jaxson Robinson ran the point guard and ended up having his breakout game as a Wildcat, going for 18 points on 7/15 shooting (2/5 on 3-point shots), three rebounds, one steal, and a team-high five assists vs. zero turnovers.

Here’s to hoping both Kriisa and Butler will be fine and back in the lineup sooner rather than later.