Another day, another Kentucky Wildcat victory at home.
For the second-straight game, they’ve done it without their two starting guards. Both Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington missed Wednesday night’s action vs. LSU with injuries.
In the end it didn’t matter, though, with the Kentucky Wildcats squeezing past the LSU Tigers by a score of 71-66.
Kentucky missed Washington and Wheeler early on, as they were unable to defend the quickness of LSU’s Xavier Pinson. LSU, one of the conference’s worst three-point shooting teams, also caught fire (surprise!) from downtown early on in the contest. However, head coach John Calipari and his team quickly adjusted their defense to pull ahead and keep their home game winning streak alive going into their final home game next week vs. Ole Miss.
In addition to key defensive adjustments, the unforeseen surprise on Wednesday night was Bryce Hopkins and his coming out party for the Wildcats. Hopkins saw additional minutes in replace of Keion Brooks and wasted zero time making the most of them. He scored 13 points and grabbed four rebounds in 16 minutes, making his presence felt on both ends of the floor. His energy was matched by the Rupp Arena crowd and fueled his teammates in the victory.
Following the win, Kentucky has a chance to secure a perfect home season next week if they can handle business against Ole Miss. The Rebels are 13-15 on the season with ESPN’s Basketball Power Index giving the Wildcats a 96.2% chance of securing the victory. In the meantime, Calipari and his Wildcats will hit the road on Saturday for a top-25 matchup at Arkansas. Tip-off is set for 2PM Eastern with television coverage provided by CBS.
Tweet of the Day
Central Bank is $10k poorer!!! pic.twitter.com/DzXYzHvYob
— Zack Geoghegan (@ZGeogheganKSR) February 24, 2022
And this guy is 10K richer!
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