No. 10 Kentucky moved its win streak to five Friday night in Lexington with a 77-62 victory over Tennessee State at Rupp Arena.
Kentucky (5-1) was led by freshman Keldon Johnson, who scored a career-high 27 points, 13 coming from the free throw line. He also had seven rebounds. Graduate transfer Reid Travis added 13 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
Leading 42-32 with 17:11 remaining, Kentucky went on a 24-14 run to grab its largest lead of the night at 20 points, 66-46, with 7:45 to play. Johnson had 13 of the Wildcats' 24 points.
Tennessee State (2-4) placed three players in double figures. Junior guard Donte Dorsey-Fitzpatrick was tops with 18 points, followed by Emmanuel Egbuta with 13 and Kamar McKnight with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Kentucky won the rebounding battle 38-30, but had eight assists to 14 turnovers.
The Wildcats used an 8-0 spurt late in the first half to finally put some distance between themselves and the Tigers.
Johnson had four points and EJ Montgomery had three to push a 25-22 lead to 33-22. The 11-point margin was the Wildcats' largest of the first half.
One area of concern for Kentucky has been 3-point defense. The Wildcats entered the game allowing opponents 44.1 percent from long range, which ranks 346th out of 351 Division I teams nationally.
In coach John Calipari's previous nine UK seasons, the 3-point defense has averaged a stellar 31.1 percent. It's never been worse than 32.6, and the best mark was 27.1 percent.
On Friday night, Kentucky held Tennessee State to 37.5 percent on 6-of-16. Kentucky did little to take advantage of that as the Wildcats made only 4-of-15 for 26.7 percent.
Kentucky held a 35-27 lead at halftime despite poor shooting. The Wildcats were 9-of-27 overall and only 1-of-10 from 3-point range. There was also just one assist to five turnovers.
--Field Level Media
Tennessee St. | Kentucky | |
Donte Fitzpatrick-Dorsey 18 | Scoring | Keldon Johnson 27 |
Armani Chaney 4 | Assists | Quade Green 4 |
Kamar McKnight 9 | Rebounds | Reid Travis 9 |
Emmanuel Egbuta 5 | Free Throws Made | Keldon Johnson 13 |
Emmanuel Egbuta 2 | Steals | PJ Washington 2 |
Dave Morris 1 | Blocks | EJ Montgomery 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Tennessee St. | 62 | 40.7 | 6-16 | 12-19 | 11 | 26 | 1 | 5 | 19 |
Kentucky | 77 | 44.2 | 4-15 | 27-41 | 8 | 37 | 5 | 4 | 14 |