Kentucky got a much-needed rebound win Tuesday night. Despite a great push by visiting Mississippi State, the Cats would prevail with a 78-65 win.
PJ washington was the star of a the show, scoring a career-high 22 points that his team needed every bit of. He stuffed the stat sheet with six rebounds, two assists, three steals and two blocks.
Kevin Knox wasn’t far behind with 19 points, six boards and two steals. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander chipped in 16 points, four boards and six assists.
Amazingly, Kentucky managed to beat a 14-6 Bulldogs team while just getting a combined 12 points from Nick Richards (0), Hamidou Diallo (6), Quade Green (4) and Jarred Vanderbilt (2). That speaks to how well PJ, Kevin and Shai team with their team needing every bit of what they gave.
While there’s a lot of work to do, this team is slowly improving in many areas, particularly on defense. This marked the fourth-straight opponent that Kentucky held to under 40-percent shooting from the field.
While this is still far from being an elite defense, that’s an elite level that this team can build on going forward.
Game MVP: PJ Washington
There’s really no question who the MVP of this game was. While he’s been very erratic this season, there’s no question that Washington is capable of putting this team on his back and carrying the Cats to victory.
That’s what he did tonight while shooting six of 10 from the field and 10 of 14 from the free-throw stripe. He also played great defense and helped limit Bulldogs big men to just 10 points.
He also gets the MVP for his hard work at improving his foul shoot, which has gone from horrific early in the season to now being quite reliable.
After going 10-14 on foul shots en route to 22 points, PJ Washington tells UK Radio's Mike Pratt & sparse, remaining late-night crowd in Rupp Arena that he's been working on his foul shooting 'every day. I try to get 50 made free throws at the end of practice.'
— Mark Story (@markcstory) January 24, 2018
Here is the final fox score from win No. 15 for the Cats:
Enjoy a fresh set of highlights, courtesy of Kentucky Wildcats TV:
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