LEXINGTON, Ky. — The script didn’t change.
Tennessee basketball suffered another loss to rival Kentucky, falling 74-71 at Rupp Arena after holding a 14-point lead. The No. 25 Vols (16-7, 6-4 SEC) allowed the Wildcats to storm back in the second half, going cold from the field while Kentucky (17-7, 8-3) relied on its high-octane offense to swipe another win. Tennessee made only six field goals in the final stanza.
Nate Ament paced all scorers with 29 points, racking up eight rebounds. Ja’Kobi Gillespie posted 15 points. DeWayne Brown II grabbed 12 rebounds.
Otega Oweh led Kentucky with 21 points while Denzel Aberdeen registered 16.
Messy start
For the offense-minded, the opening minutes of this border war didn’t supply much satisfaction.
Tennessee and Kentucky traded blows in the opening minutes, the Wildcats embarking on the first scoring run of the evening with a 6-0 mini-burst to give them an early advantage and get the home crowd noisy. The Vols brought the volume down promptly, using an elongated 7-0 run that spanned nearly four minutes to retake the lead.
Neither side could establish any kind of stout offensive rhythm. Kentucky displayed some poor free-throw shooting while Tennessee struggled to finish with points on extra possessions.
Momentum remained unclaimed.
Ament explodes
After missing his first four shots, the Tennessee freshman flipped the switch in his first visit to Rupp Arena.
Building off his 26-point second half against Ole Miss, Ament owned the back portion of the first half with the same fire. He kicked things off with a triple for his first points of the contest at the 9:49 mark.
The floodgates opened again.
Ament went on to connect on his next six shots, three of them coming from beyond the arc. The Vols’ attack ran through him again as he powered his guys to a double-digit advantage in enemy territory. He trotted to the halftime locker room with 19 points to his ledger while Tennessee sat with a 47-33 lead.
The sizable cushion drew a sour reaction from the Kentucky faithful, but they’d seen this same movie just a few weeks prior. Head coach Rick Barnes’ contingent had to finish this time.
Triple town
The Vols found it easy from distance in the first half.
Tennessee drained eight threes in the opening stanza, converting at a 53.3% clip in one of its strongest showings from deep so far. Ament and Gillespie combined for four makes apiece, stacking momentum by hitting open and contested looks.
A team that usually won its games with tenacity on the defensive side of the ball was shooting the lights out.
Cats make a push
It seemed inevitable.
A 14-point hole felt like nothing for a team that clawed back from a 17-point deficit at Food City Center three weeks ago. February’s meeting quickly presented a similar script. The Vols emerged for the second half ice cold, and the Wildcats took advantage.
Tennessee amassed a scoring drought of 5:37 while Kentucky raced for an 8-0 run, working its way to the paint to turn things back to a single-digit affair. Brown’s layup out of a Vols’ timeout grew Tennessee’s lead back to two possessions, but his group would have to survive the stretch run inside one of college basketball’s most daunting venues.
Déjà vu
The Wildcats snatched their first lead since the opening minutes of the game with 6:18 to go in regulation.
The Vols choked away another double-digit lead, but this time they had some time left to recover. Tennessee punched back with a 5-0 run to regain control as trips to the charity stripe became crucial. With Kentucky defending desperately, J.P. Estrella came up empty-handed on his trip to the line in the big spot.
The Wildcats pulled ahead with just under 90 seconds left when Aberdeen sank a pair of free throws, but Ament answered with a layup to tilt the advantage once more.
The Vols made one of their biggest mistakes.
A wide-open Collin Chandler drilled a go-ahead triple to give the home squad a two-point lead with 27.4 seconds left. Gillespie’s last-second heave didn’t fall, and the same nightmare came true once more.
Tennessee will travel to face Mississippi State on Feb. 11.
