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The Kentucky Wildcats entered Saturday on a six-game losing streak and in desperate need of a win.
They were facing the only SEC team that had yet to beat John Calipari at Kentucky and that remained true as the Cats defeated the Mississippi State Bulldogs 78-73 in double overtime.
However, this game is forever going to be remembered as the Dontaie Allen game and Allen may have just saved Kentucky’s season.
The BBN has been begging Cal to give Allen a chance amid the team’s struggles and earlier in the week Cal said he was going to get his chance.
Allen got his chance Saturday and more than took advantage of it as he erupted for 23-points on 8/14 shooting and 7/11 from three. He also added five rebounds and a block.
With the team trailing 55-46 following technical free throws after John Calipari was ejected, the Cats went on a huge run with Allen leading the charge.
Allen would score nine points down the stretch to bring the Cats all the way back and force this one into overtime.
In the first OT, the game was knotted up at 65 when Allen buried his 6th three pointer of the game to make it 68-65. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs answered sending it to a second OT.
The second OT got off to a great start as Olivier Sarr drilled a three to make it 71-68. Following two Bulldog free throws, Allen banked in a pullup mid-range jumper to push it back to 73-70.
Davion Mintz grabbed a big defensive rebound and on the other end Allen made his 7th three of the night pushing the lead to 76-70.
Down the stretch the Cats were able to do what they needed to in order to pull this one out and leave Starkville with a 78-73 win and coach Cal leaves with a 15-0 record against the Bulldogs.
Like I said, this will always be remembered as the Dontaie Allen game and he may have just saved Kentucky’s season since they will need to go roughly 14-4 in SEC play to make the NCAA Tournament.
2020 is behind us and the Cats are 1-0 in the new year. Hopefully, this is the spark the team needed and the start of something good for this team.
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