No. 15 Kentucky surges late to take down No. 5 Tennessee
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Ansley Almonor and Otega Oweh scored 13 points each and No. 15 Kentucky beat No. 5 Tennessee 75-64 on Tuesday night.
The Wildcats (17-7, 6-5 Southeastern Conference) completed a regular season sweep of the Volunteers. Kentucky also beat Tennessee 78-73 on Jan. 28 in Knoxville, and is now 7-1 against teams ranked in the Top 15 this season.
Koby Brea and Trent Noah added 11 points each. The Wildcats made 12 3-pointers, including three by Noah.
Zakai Zeigler scored 17 points to lead Tennessee (21-5, 7-5), Igor Milicic had 16 and nine rebounds, and Chaz Lanier added 10 points.
Takeaways
Tennessee: The Volunteers had a three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 4-4 in road games. Tennessee scored just 26 points in the first half, while leading scorer Lanier (17.7 points per game), was held to just 10 points.
Kentucky: The Wildcats were without guard Jaxson Robinson, the team’s second-leading scorer (13.3 points per game), who sat out because of a right wrist injury. Robinson scored 17 points in the win over the Volunteers on Jan. 28. Kentucky has played just seven games with a full roster this season. Lamont Butler left with 8:40 after apparently re-aggravating his shoulder.
Key moment
After Tennessee took its second lead with 4:43 left, the Wildcats outscored the Vols 17-4 in the final four minutes. Koby Brea connected on two 3-pointers during the decisive spurt.
Up next
Kentucky plays at Texas on Saturday, and Tennessee hosts Vanderbilt.
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