Mark Pope's Kentucky Wildcats defeated their SEC basketball rival Tennessee Volunteers with another big comeback Saturday at Rupp Arena. donned denim jerseys and celebrated the 1996 title team, but UK basketball lost to the Tennessee Volunteers in SEC play.
LEXINGTON — Maybe there's some magic in Kentucky basketball's denim jerseys. The 1995-96 UK team, the first one to wear the pattern, never lost in the look.
And after once again taking a double-digit deficit into halftime, this season's Wildcats — sporting denim jerseys for the first time — dug deep yet again to engineer another memorable comeback Saturday night— and ensure the program remained unbeaten in the jerseys.
For the second time in less than a month, Tennessee was on the wrong end of the rally, as Kentucky earned a 74-71 win at Rupp Arena.
The Wildcats (17-7, 8-3 SEC) trailed by 14 points, 47-33, at intermission.
But the hosts outscored Tennessee (16-7, 6-4) by 17 points (41-24) in the final 20 minutes, giving UK coach Mark Pope's group its eighth win in the last nine games. It also gave Kentucky a sweep of the home-and-home series against UT for the second time in as many years of the Pope era.
The players who so often have been the chief catalysts in these come-from-behind triumphs took the lead.
Senior guard Otega Oweh scored nine of his team-high 21 points after halftime.
Fellow guard Collin Chandler, defined by his clutch play all season, provided the biggest shot of all: the go-ahead 3 with 33 seconds to go that put UK on top 71-69.
This story will be updated.
This story will be updated.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball beats Tennessee, caps SEC rivalry sweep with rally
Category: General Sports
