LEXINGTON — No. 10 Kentucky lost a second straight game at Rupp Arena Saturday as it fell 103-92 to No. 5 Tennessee in front of a sold-out crowd that featured several UK basketball and football legends.
Tennessee’s 103 points marked the first time since 2008 (VMI) a visitor scored more than 100 points at Rupp Arena.
“We’ve got to be a little more sound defensively in what we’re doing,” UK head coach John Calipari said postgame. “We’re going to have to be a collective defensive team and I keep saying if one guy stops playing, it’s going to hurt this this group, but when we do it together, we can hold our own.”
The costly defeat in which Kentucky never held a lead drops UK to 15-6 overall, just 5-4 in SEC play and 3-2 at home during conference play.
Saturday’s loss came without starting point guard D.J. Wagner, who missed a second straight game with an ankle injury. The Cats are now 0-3 without Wagner this season.
UK did get back freshman Justin Edwards, who missed Wednesday’s loss to Florida with a quad injury.
Things got off to a nightmare start for the Wildcats as Tennessee opened the game on an 8-0 run and then extended that to a 16-5 run heading into the game’s first media timeout, with leading scorer Dalton Knecht scoring just two points during the Vols early run.
“We made shots early,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said. “The great thing about it was coming in with what we spend most of our time doing. It was a mindset with our guys.”
Eight early points from Rob Dillingham helped UK cut the Volunteer lead to 23-17 heading into the game’s second media timeout but Tennessee punched right back to push its lead back to 14 at 36-22 heading into the game’s third media timeout.
Despite another big Volunteer run, the Wildcats continued to chip away as it closed the first half on a 20-9 run, with Dillingham scoring 17 first-half points, Antonio Reeves scoring nine, and Edwards adding seven as Tennessee’s halftime lead sat at 46-42.
“At halftime, I was amazed we had a chance,” Calipari said.
Tennessee opened the first half on a 13-5 run to push its lead back to 12 at 59-47 with 15:05 to play. This time, UK would not be able to recover.
Kentucky would use a 7-0 run to cut Tennessee’s lead to seven at 78-71 with 5:13 left, but from there the Vols finished the game on a 25-21 run to earn the win and improve to 16-5 overall and 6-2 in SEC play.
UK was led in scoring by Dillingham with a season-high 35 points.
“I thought I was the best player ever to come out of Hickory (N.C.) but that got blown up tonight,” Banes said. “Dillingham was unbelievable.”
“That boy can score,” UK sophomore Adou Thiero said. “Anytime we need a bucket, get the ball to Rob. He’s gonna go off.”
He was joined in double figures by Reeves (21) and Reed Sheppard (16).
Zakai Zeigler and Josiah-Jordan James each scored 26 to lead Tennessee. The duo was joined in double figures by Knecht (16), Santiago Vescovi (11) and Jonas Aidoo (11).
Kentucky will be back in action Tuesday when it travels south to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt (6-15, 1-7). Tip-off from Memorial Gymnasium is slated for 7:30 p.m. CT.