SEC college basketball final: Kentucky 75, Ole Miss 63

You have to take the way-back machine all the way to 1926 to find the last time the Kentucky men’s basketball team lost four straight home games. So badly in need of protecting their home court, the Wildcats play host to the Ole Miss Rebels at Rupp Arena on Tuesday night.

The SEC contest begins at 9 p.m. on ESPN. Karl Ravech, Jay Bilas and Marty Smith will be on the call for the World Wide Leader. Or you can listen to Tom Leach and Jack Givens on the UK Radio Network.

Either way, follow along with us. I’ll be at the game along with Ben Roberts, Mark Story, Cameron Drummond and Silas Walker. Follow us on X/Twitter at@BenRobertsHL, @markcstory, @cdrummond97, and @sigh_las and @johnclayiv.

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Final: Kentucky 75, Ole Miss 63

Antonio Reeves led the way with 15 points and Ugonna Onyenso blocked 10 shots as Kentucky defeated Ole Miss 75-63 to break a three-game home losing streak at Rupp Arena.

The Wildcats improved to 17-7 overall and 7-4 in the SEC. They travel to Auburn on Saturday to face Bruce Pearl’s Tigers.

Final box

Kentucky leads Ole Miss 71-56 with 2:46 left

It appears that John Calipari’s Cats are going to snap their three-game home losing streak. UK leads Ole Miss 71-56 with 2:46 remaining at Rupp Arena. Kentucky is shooting 52.9% for the game. The visitors are shooting 35.6%. That’s pretty much your difference right there.

Ugonna Onyenso holding a block party

Kentucky center Ugonna Onyenso has blocked 10 shots as Kentucky leads Ole Miss 59-45 with 10:46 left. The Cats are shooting 56.4% for the game while Mississippi is shooting just 39.1%. Antonio Reeves and Reed Sheppard each have 13 points for the Cats. UK has committed 15 turnovers.

Tre Mitchell has left the game and is listed as questionable. Mitchell has five points and six rebounds in 21 minutes. This is his first game back after missing the last two games with a back injury.

Ole Miss has cut into Kentucky’s lead

The visiting Rebels opened the second half with an 8-2 run to cut Kentucky’s lead to 45-37. It is currently UK 50, Ole Miss 41 with 15:21 left. The Cats again turned the ball over repeatedly, leading to Ole Miss run-outs for baskets.

Halftime: Kentucky 43, Ole Miss 29

Justin Edwards and Antonio Reeves each scored 11 points as Kentucky has a 43-29 lead over Ole Miss at the half. Down 23-18 with 7:11 left in the half, the Cats outscored the Rebels 25-6 on the way to the halftime horn.

Kentucky shot 55.6 percent the first half. Ole Miss shot just 35.5%. The Rebels were just 3-of-10 from 3e-point range. Chris Beard’s team came into the game ranked 10th nationally in 3-point percentage at 38.7%. UK was 3-of-9 from beyond the arc. The Cats lead the nation in 3-point percentage at 41.0%.

Halftime box

Kentucky goes on a 10-0 run to take lead

With Justin Edwards and Antonio Reeves each scoring nine points, Kentucky has a 30-25 lead over Ole Miss with 3:54 left in the first half. Down 23-18, the Cats went on a 10-0 run to take a 28-23 lead. UK has blocked eight shots. Ugonna Onyenso has seven of those blocks. The Cats’ turnover count is up to seven. Ole Miss has committed six turnovers.

Kentucky having problems with turnovers

Ole Miss leads 15-13 at the 11:48 TV timeout in first half in large part because Kentucky has committed six turnovers. Rob Dillingham and Antonio Reeves have each committed two turnovers. In one stretch, the Cats committed turnovers on four consecutive possessions. Ole Miss has a 10-4 advantage in points off turnovers.

Amazingly, UK came into the game ranked third nationally in turnover percentage, turning the ball over on just 13.1% of its possessions.

Great start for Kentucky’s Justin Edwards

Kentucky’s Justin Edwards scored the first seven points for the Wildcats on the way to a 9-5 Kentucky lead at the 15:57 mark of the first half. UK’s other basket belonged to Rob Dillingham off the bench. Edwards is 3-for-3 from the field as John Calipari’s club is off to a 4-of-5 start from the field.

Edwards scored eight points in Kentucky’s loss to Gonzaga on Saturday. Before that, he scored a career-high 17 points in the Cats win at Vanderbilt last Tuesday. By the way, Vandy knocked off Texas A&M 74-73 on Tuesday night, three days after A&M beat Tennessee by 16 points in College Station.

We also had a marriage proposal on the video board during the TV timeout. It appears that she said yes.

Officials for Kentucky-Ole Miss

The officials for Kentucky-Ole Miss are Pat Adams, K.B. Burdett Jr. and Owen Shortt.

This is the fifth UK game that Adams has worked this season. He was also wearing a whistle for the New Mexico State, Miami, Louisville and Texas A&M games.

Burdett worked UK games against Miami, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Tennessee. Shortt worked the Stonehill and Georgia games.

A look at the two coaches

Kentucky’s John Calipari and Ole Miss’ Chris Beard have faced each other once before. That was on Jan. 20, 2020, when UK defeated Beard’s Texas Tech Red Raiders 76-74 in overtime in Lubbock as part of the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. Nick Richards scored 25 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to lead the Wildcats to the win.

Despite his team losing its last three games at home, Calipari is 192-64 in the SEC as the Kentucky coach. That includes a 14-2 record against the Rebels. All-time, UK is 56-2 against Ole Miss in Rupp Arena. The Rebels haven’t won in Lexington since Feb. 14, 1998, when Keith Carter scored 21 points to lead Rob Evans’ team.

In his first season in Oxford, the 50-year-old Beard has the Rebels at 18-5 overall and 5-5 in the SEC. Beard went 112-55 in five seasons at Texas Tech, including a 31-7 record in 2018-19 in which the Red Raiders advanced to the national championship game before losing to Virginia 85-77 in overtime.

Beard left Lubbock for Texas after the 2020-21 season. After going 22-12 in his first season in Austin, Beard was suspended after eight games of his second season because of a domestic violence charge. He was later fired. (Remember when Calipari was then rumored for the Texas job?) The charge was dismissed in February and Beard was hired by Ole Miss to replace Kermit Davis on March 13, 2023.

What the computers say about Cats vs. Rebels

Kentucky is 25th in the NCAA NET rankings. The Cats are 2-5 in Quad 1 games and 3-1 in Quad 2 games. Ole Miss is 59th in the NET rankings. The Rebels are 2-4 in Quad 1 games and 3-1 in Quad 2 games. Under the criteria, Tuesday is a Quad 2 (31-75) home game for Kentucky and a Quad 1 (1-75) road game for Ole Miss.

Kentucky is currently No. 28 in KenPom’s adjusted overall efficiency ratings. The Wildcats are No. 5 in adjusted offensive efficiency but No. 125 in adjusted defensive efficiency.

Ole Miss is No. 60 in adjusted overall efficiency, according to Pomeroy. The Rebels rank 30th in adjusted offensive efficiency and 130th in defensive efficiency. That’s quite a change for Beard’s teams. His 2018-19 team at Texas Tech led the nation in defensive efficiency. Three other Red Raiders clubs ranked in the top 15 in that category.

Trends to know

Ole Miss has lost its last two games. The Rebels were drubbed 77-51 at home by Auburn on Feb. 3. Three days later, they lost by only three points, 68-65, at now 11th-ranked South Carolina. Ole Miss did not play Saturday, so the Rebs have had a whole week to prepare for their trip to Lexington.

In case you haven’t heard, Kentucky has lost three straight home games for the first time since 1966 and the first time in the history of Rupp Arena. That dropped UK to No. 22 in the AP Top 25. Overall, Kentucky has lost three of its last four games and four of its last six. Its last home win was 105-96 over Georgia on Jan. 20.

As for strengths and weaknesses, Kentucky leads the nation in 3-point field goal percentage at 41.0. The Cats are 170th in in offensive rebound percentage and 233rd in defensive rebound percentage. Ole Miss 10th in 3-point percentage at 38.7. The Rebels are 353rd in defensive rebounding percentage.

A couple of players to watch

For Kentucky, I’m going with D.J. Wagner. The freshman point guard played just 14 minutes against Gonzaga, his first game back since Jan. 27 because of an ankle injury. If Wagner is healthy enough to return to the starting lineup, Calipari can return to his rotation of Wagner and Antonio Reeves as starters with Reed Sheppard and Rob Dillingham coming off the bench.

For Ole Miss, watch out for Allen Flanigan. The grad transfer from Auburn scored a combined 46 points in Ole Miss’ last two games. The 6-foot-6 senior is averaging 15.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists on the season. He’s scored 20-or-more points in seven of Ole Miss’ 23 games and has produced four double-doubles.

Kentucky basketball roster

Ole Miss basketball roster

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