When Kentucky needed it most, Cason Wallace was there. ‘That fellow knows how to play.’

Two days before Kentucky was set to take on Michigan in the Wildcats’ first regular-season basketball game in Europe, the team found itself in a small gym in the basement of a London workout center.

Toward the end of the Cats’ practice Friday, freshman guard Cason Wallace took the ball from the perimeter, drove the left side toward the basket, and threw down a dunk in traffic so ferocious that it left the backboard rattling from side to side.

John Calipari called the scrimmage to a halt.

A couple of the veterans on the team turned around with smiles on their faces — seemingly on the verge of giggles — before a word came out of the Kentucky coach’s mouth.

They knew what was coming. Wallace had — as Calipari often calls it — told on himself.

“Where’s your energy?!” the UK coach yelled sarcastically. “Where’s your s---?! Why won’t you do that s--- in a game?!”

The tone was clear: Calipari loved what he had just seen. What’s been clear for months: the UK coach absolutely loves Wallace’s game. And he knows there’s much more to see than what the freshman has shown through the first eight games of his college career, impressive as that small sample size might be.

The “energy” comment is an inside joke between the two, with Calipari marveling at the demeanor that Wallace brings to the game, especially in practice, where the teenager first caught the Hall of Fame coach off guard early on by basically telling him to put a little pep in his step when Calipari seemed to be in a bad mood one day.

The coach’s wish for Wallace to be more assertive in certain situations is nothing new, either. In the freshman’s very first college game, which happened to come on his 19th birthday, he threw down a similar dunk in traffic and stared Calipari down on his way to the other end of the court. Calipari had told Wallace he didn’t think he could do such a thing in a game. Obviously, he knew he could, but he wanted to see it, so he challenged the young guard. Didn’t take long to get a response.

Wallace didn’t do anything exactly like that during Kentucky’s 73-69 victory over Michigan in London on Sunday, but he made plenty of winning basketball plays. He carried himself with that assertiveness that Calipari craves, and the Cats probably wouldn’t have won without him.

“I know what he is,” the UK coach said afterward. “He does a little bit of everything.”

Wallace’s line against the Wolverines: 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists, one block and one steal. He played 36 minutes. He never left the court in the second half.

After the final buzzer, Wallace was handed the Hall of Fame London Showcase most valuable player award. But Calipari said teammate Jacob Toppin was given the Cats’ “most impactful” award back in the locker room.

“And he’s probably happy about it,” Calipari said of Wallace.

The Kentucky coach puts himself in the same position every year. Get a group of guys together, many of whom could be star players — or, at the very least, have larger roles — on just about any other team in the country, and try to figure it all out by the end of the season. It’s quite clear that Calipari cherishes those unselfish types who can also get the job done.

Wallace is certainly one of those guys.

“When you’re so worried about all the stuff that doesn’t really matter, that messes your game up,” Calipari said Sunday night. “Just play.”

Wallace wasn’t pleased with his play early on against Michigan.

He said he felt like he personally was “a few steps behind” on both ends of the court in the first half. He still had four rebounds and three assists at halftime — just three points, on 1-for-4 shooting — but his defense, a personal point of pride, was lacking, he said.

Calipari challenged the entire team in the halftime locker room, specifically the young freshman.

“We just came into halftime talking about how we gotta lock in on defense more,” Wallace said. “And being late — a few steps behind on everything we were doing — so coming out in the (second) half just trying to lock back in, refocus, and finish the game out strong.”

Wallace made a splash immediately.

Over the first two minutes and 16 seconds of the second half, Wallace hit a jumper, grabbed a defensive rebound, emphatically blocked a Michigan shot, and made back-to-back three-pointers. Before the first TV timeout out of the break, Kentucky’s one-point halftime lead had ballooned to an eight-point advantage, thanks largely to Wallace’s assertive play.

Toppin and Oscar Tshiebwe had major moments down the stretch. Antonio Reeves hit three three-pointers in the first half to keep the Cats on track, but Wallace was the biggest difference-maker, and he saved his best moment for the end.

With the Cats up 68-66 and the ball with just a little more than a minute left on the clock — but the momentum on Michigan’s side following a late flurry — Toppin kicked it out to Sahvir Wheeler, who swung it to Wallace on the wing. The shot clock ticking down inside of 10 seconds and Kentucky needing a basket in the worst way, the freshman didn’t hesitate.

The three went down to put the Cats up 71-66 with 1:11 left. It turned out to be the winning shot.

“It was no surprise,” Michigan Coach Juwan Howard said of Wallace’s night. “That fellow knows how to play. I’ve watched enough of his games. I’ve seen what he’s capable of doing. And he made some big shots when they needed it.”

Wallace said the team had been emphasizing inside-out threes — get the ball in the paint, kick it out, and if you’re open, you let it rip. Don’t pass up the moment. Be assertive.

And when the lights were brightest, that’s exactly what he did.

“It was one of those moments where it was inside-out, and I had to shoot it. Because if I don’t, I would have been a selfish teammate. So I shot the ball, and it went in.”

Next game

Yale at No. 16 Kentucky

When: 1 p.m. Saturday

TV: SEC Network

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Yale 8-1, Kentucky 6-2

Series: Kentucky leads 1-0

Last meeting: Kentucky won 79-58 on Dec. 27, 1961, in Lexington