Reed Sheppard leads Kentucky’s 3-point barrage in blowout victory over Stonehill College

Kentucky didn’t waste much time getting its first loss of the college basketball season out of its system.

The Wildcats missed their first two shots of their return to Rupp Arena on Friday night, then made just about everything. No. 17-ranked UK defeated heavy underdog Stonehill College 101-67, putting on an offensive clinic three days after losing to No. 1 Kansas in the Champions Classic.

The Cats had a 14-point lead against the nation’s top team Tuesday night but couldn’t hold on. Against Stonehill — No. 349 in the country, according to the KenPom ratings — UK had no such issues. The Skyhawks actually took early leads of 5-0 and 8-2, but it was all Cats from there.

After missing their first two attempts, the Wildcats connected on 11 of their next 12 shots. By the end of that run — capped by back-to-back 3-pointers from Reed Sheppard — Kentucky had a 30-15 advantage. UK led by 21 points at halftime, going 22-for-33 from the floor and 10-for-16 from deep in the first 20 minutes, and dishing out 16 assists in the process.

After Stonehill started the second half with an 8-0 run, it was all Wildcats.

Sheppard led the way with 25 points. He was 9-for-10 from the field and 7-for-8 on 3-pointers. The freshman guard and reigning Kentucky Mr. Basketball added seven assists to go along with three steals and two blocked shots.

Fellow freshman Rob Dillingham added 20 points and seven assists off the bench, and fifth-year players Tre Mitchell and Antonio Reeves scored 15 points apiece.

Kentucky finished the game at 39-for-61 from the field and went 17-for-32 on 3-pointers. The Cats had 26 assists.

The 17 3-pointers set a new record for the John Calipari era. The previous high of any of his teams at Kentucky was 15. The 2009-10 and 2011-12 teams each hit that mark once.

Stonehill — a program in its second season of a transition from Division II to NCAA DI status — wasn’t expected to be a tough opponent, and the Skyhawks could do little to stop Kentucky once it got going. The Cats sliced their way through Stonehill’s 2-3 zone — or simply shot over it — for most of the night.

The Skyhawks were regarded as one of the lowest rated teams in college basketball coming into the night. Stonehill defeated Army 57-44 last week, but its three defeats were all blowouts, losing by 45 points to George Washington in the season opener, 40 points to No. 6 UConn on Saturday, and 44 points to Saint Joseph’s on Tuesday night.

Kentucky’s 7-footers

Aaron Bradshaw was out on the Rupp Arena court more than two hours before tipoff, as usual, though he didn’t do anything basketball related. The 7-foot-1 freshman watched other Wildcats go through individual workouts and encouraged teammates as they put up shots.

Sophomore center Ugonna Onyenso arrived on the Rupp court a short time later and did some jump-roping workouts — the first time he’d done that all season — and then took dozens of jump shots from all over the court, by far the most active he’s been before a game so far.

John Calipari has said multiple times over the past few weeks that Onyenso remains behind Bradshaw in his recovery process. He has said that Bradshaw should join the Wildcats in practice soon, but he didn’t put a timetable on how long it would take him to get into game shape from there.

“I have no idea,” Calipari said Monday. “Until I get him back and he’s on the court (in practice), I’d be guessing.”

Both Bradshaw and Onyenso suffered foot injuries during the offseason.

Freshman center Zvonimir Ivisic did not come out for any pregame warmups. His first appearance on the Rupp court Friday night came while his teammates were taking part in the final layup line. Kentucky is still waiting for Ivisic to be cleared by the NCAA to compete in games. He has been practicing with the Wildcats in the meantime.

Next UK basketball game

The Wildcats should get a stiffer test next time out.

UK will host Saint Joseph’s at 7 p.m. Monday. The game will be televised on SEC Network and marks the third and final matchup of the Wildcat Challenge — the program’s “multi-team event” for this season. Stonehill and Texas A&M-Commerce were the first two games in the MTE.

Outside of the 89-84 loss to No. 1 Kansas last week, Saint Joe’s should provide UK with its toughest matchup of the 2023-24 season so far. The Hawks went into Friday’s game against Texas A&M-Commerce as the No. 91 overall team in the KenPom ratings, and their 3-0 start included a 69-61 victory over Penn, which beat No. 21 Villanova earlier this week. (Texas A&M-Commerce upset the Hawks 57-54 on Friday.)

St. Joe’s defeated Stonehill College 100-56 on Tuesday night. The Hawks returned six of their top seven scorers from last season’s team, and KenPom rates them as the No. 3 team in the Atlantic 10 Conference behind Dayton and Duquesne.

This will be the first meeting between Kentucky and Saint Joe’s since UK defeated the Hawks in the 1997 NCAA Tournament. The Cats also won the only other game between the two sides, a road trip to Philadelphia during the 1938-39 season.

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