Kentucky basketball gets its ‘mojo’ back after two bad weeks. Everyone got in on the fun.

Three losses and — as John Calipari said it — an “ugly ass” win making up its last four basketball games, Kentucky needed something more Tuesday night.

Luckily for the Wildcats, they were playing Vanderbilt.

The No. 17-ranked Cats bounced back from two consecutive losses at home with a 109-77 victory over the Commodores in Memorial Gym.

In this one, pretty much everyone in Kentucky Blue got in on the fun.

Antonio Reeves scored 24 points. Rob Dillingham had 20 points and nine assists. Justin Edwards notched a career-high 17 points, perhaps a turning point in what has been a frustrating and disappointing season so far. The highlight of his night: a breakaway windmill dunk to add to the Wildcats’ second-half onslaught.

Jordan Burks, who’s played sparingly since UK’s trio of 7-footers made their debuts, scored a career-high 13 points, going 6-for-6 from the floor with four dunks. One of those 7-footers, Aaron Bradshaw, had 12 points and seven rebounds, perhaps his best game since that breakout against Penn two months ago. Another one of those 7-footers, Zvonimir Ivisic, played his most minutes (12) since his electrifying debut against Georgia two weeks ago, tallying 11 points, seven rebounds, two assists and one block before fouling out.

“We were just ready to go,” Reeves said afterward.

They sure were.

Reeves hit a jumper on UK’s first possession. Edwards nailed a 3-pointer on the second.

The Cats took their first double-digit lead with 13:28 left in the first half. They took their first 20-point lead with 6:47 to go until halftime. When Reeves made a 3-pointer to put Kentucky ahead 50-30 with 3:39 left in the half, it marked seven straight makes from long range for the Wildcats, who hit 10 of their first 12 attempts from 3-point range.

Reeves chuckled at that stat.

“It’s just getting our mojo back, coming off the two losses,” he said. “It’s devastating, but we just stayed in the gym, stayed focused as a collective group.”

Kentucky played without starting point guard D.J. Wagner, who missed his third consecutive game and fourth of the season with an ankle injury. The Cats (16-6, 6-4 SEC) were 0-3 without Wagner on the court before Tuesday night. Starting forward Tre Mitchell also sat out with a back issue that was noticeably bothering him three days earlier against Tennessee.

Coach John Calipari said after Tuesday’s win that he expects to have everyone back in “a week or two.”

UK didn’t need to be at full strength against the Commodores, who dropped to 6-16 overall and 1-8 in conference play with the lopsided defeat. The 109 points scored by Kentucky marked the program’s highest total in a road game since the Cats dropped 120 in Memorial Gym on Feb. 7, 1996 — 28 years to the day before this rout and a couple of months before UK won that year’s NCAA title.

It was only two and a half weeks ago that this Kentucky season seemed on the verge of greatness. The date was Jan. 20, and it turned out to be one of the most celebratory days of the Calipari era. First came the long-awaited announcement that Ivisic was finally free of the NCAA’s grasp. A few hours later came his even-more-anticipated debut, which resulted in a dazzling display that had Rupp Arena veterans thinking back on the last time the building had been quite that loud.

That day’s 105-96 win over Georgia featured an instant star turn by Ivisic, seemingly giving Kentucky’s offense — already nearly unstoppable — another potent weapon.

Three days later, the No. 6-ranked Cats were curb stomped in Columbia, site of a shocking 79-62 loss to South Carolina. Four days after that, they traveled to Fayetteville and scored just four points in the first 10 minutes against an Arkansas team in turmoil, ultimately managing a 63-57 win.

“We just won an ugly ass game,” Calipari said in the locker room after that one. “Do you really care? I don’t care. It’s a hell of a win.”

The inference was that any win on the road in the SEC — especially one at Bud Walton Arena — was worth celebrating. And the Wildcats would get two games in Rupp Arena after that.

Those didn’t go well. First, a 94-91 overtime loss to Florida. Then, a 103-92 defeat at the hands of No. 5-ranked Tennessee, which led by at least seven points for the final 17 minutes, never allowing anyone in the building even a realistic thought that Kentucky might pull out a win.

Their national stock plummeting and their defense a source of ridicule, the Cats went back out on the road Tuesday night, but not really. This short journey to Nashville was nothing like any of the previous SEC road trips this young Kentucky team had endured.

Memorial Gym was filled with Kentucky fans, loud chants of “Go Big Blue!” ringing out throughout the night.

“It felt like a home game,” Edwards said.

And the opponent was not up to snuff.

Vanderbilt entered the day at No. 186 nationally in the KenPom ratings. To put that high-major futility in perspective, the Louisville Cardinals woke up Tuesday morning at No. 180 on that list.

This result won’t change many minds about this Kentucky team, which is obviously electric offensively but has struggled all season with its defense. The Cats will get several more stiff tests in that area in the coming weeks, starting with a visit from Gonzaga on Saturday in Rupp.

What Tuesday’s result will do is get the bad mojo of the past two weeks out of Kentucky’s system.

“I’ve done this a long, long time,” Calipari said. “The ups and downs of this — that’s what it is. It’s just, at Kentucky, the ups are like, don’t sleep for two days. And the downs are, ‘I’m gonna kill everybody. Everybody needs to leave.’ That’s what it is. But, if you’re gonna coach at Kentucky or play at Kentucky, you better deal with it. Because it is not changing. And I imagine it’s been that way for 50 years.”

Next game

Gonzaga at No. 17 Kentucky

When: 4 p.m. EST Saturday

TV: CBS-27

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Gonzaga 16-6 (7-2 West Coast), Kentucky (16-6, 6-4 SEC)

Series: Tied 1-1

Last meeting: Gonzaga won 88-72 on Nov. 20, 2022, at Spokane Arena in Spokane, Washington

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