It’s been nearly a month since Kentucky has won consecutive games, and the No. 15 Wildcats’ next chance to do so will come Tuesday night when they host No. 5 Tennessee in a Southeastern Conference clash at Lexington, Ky.
Kentucky (16-7, 5-5 SEC) is coming off an 80-57 home win Saturday against South Carolina. Otega Oweh scored 17 points to lead four Wildcats in double figures, but the bigger issue may have been the presence of Lamont Butler and Jaxson Robinson, two guards who played despite having injuries that put their ability to play in question.
Butler had missed the previous three games nursing a shoulder injury, while Robinson banged up his wrist Friday in practice.
“His presence helps us out so much, offensively, defensively,” Oweh said of Butler after the win. “I mean. I’ve asked him every single day since he’s been out if he was playing, so I’m just glad he got to suit up today.”
Oweh leads the Wildcats with 16 points per game. While six players average 10 or more, the junior guard has been the team’s most consistent player. He’s scored at least 10 points in all 23 of Kentucky’s games.
Before the win over the Gamecocks, Kentucky had lost four of five games, with its only triumph coming on the road over then-No. 8 Tennessee, 78-73, on Jan. 28. Without Butler, who ranks third on the team in scoring at 12.9 points per game and leads the Wildcats with averages of 4.7 assists and 1.7 steals, Koby Brea’s 18 points paced the Wildcats vs. the Volunteers.
Since that loss, Tennessee (20-4, 7-4) has won three straight, including 70-52 at Oklahoma on Saturday. Chaz Lanier’s 21 points led the Volunteers, who shot 69.2 percent from the field in the first half and led by as many as 28 with 5:28 to play.
Lanier paces Tennessee with a 17.7 point average, and Zakai Zeigler leads with 7.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game.
The Volunteers already have avenged one loss, which came at the hands of Florida. They lost to the Gators 73-43 in Gainesville, Fla., on Jan. 7 but won at home 64-44 on Feb. 1.
The Volunteers have allowed an SEC-best average of 59.3 points per game this season, nearly seven points less than Texas A&M, which ranks second at 66.1. On Saturday, Tennessee held Oklahoma to a season-low 52 points, 26.5 less than the Sooners’ season average.
“That’s what we’ve tried to be all year,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said after the win. “We’ve always felt that’s what our program was built on. I thought we had great rim protection today.”
Kentucky is second in the SEC in offense at 86.7 points a game but is next-to-last in defense at 76.6. Before Saturday’s win over South Carolina, which shot only 32.8 percent from the field, Kentucky allowed Arkansas and Ole Miss to shoot 55.2 percent and 54.7 percent, respectively, in the Wildcats’ two most recent games.
