Kentucky collected its first road win of the season and gave coach Mark Pope his 200th career win with a 95-90 triumph over Mississippi State on Saturday night.
The No. 6 Wildcats (12-3, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) improved to 3-0 in bounce-back games this season and remained undefeated (4-0) against ranked opponents. Kentucky defeated 14th-ranked Mississippi State (14-2, 2-1) for the 10th straight time at Humphrey Coliseum and snapped the Bulldogs’ eight-game winning streak.
“That’s a great win, and it’s like the 100th thing down the list," Pope said of reaching the milestone. "I’m just so happy for our guys. It’s our first road win. The only opportunity we had to win on the road are against ranked teams. So, it’s hard. This is a great venue. I waked in here I don’t know if this is the same building, but it feels exactly like the same building I played in.”
Kentucky scored 16 of the first 23 points of the second half and built a 14-point lead at 65-51. Jaxson Robinson, who led six players in double figures with a career-high 27 points, scored nine points in the first four minutes of the second half, including two triples in back-to-back fashion.
“Jax, my goodness, it’s the best part of coaching actually - just seeing guys grow and do things that they didn’t know they could do in times where they didn’t know if they could do it," Pope said. "When you get to be a part of that, it’s really special.”
Prior to the contest, Robinson had been concerned about all aspects of his life on and off the court. Pope said Robinson "had a really tough week."
"He had a lot of frustration and a lot of things that he was concerned about and a lot of stress in his life," Pope said. "From basketball, off the court, everywhere."
Instead of dwelling on it, Robinson found peace on the court and delivered when the Wildcats needed it the most.
"I knew I just had to move on," Robinson said. "Coach talked about just moving on to the next game. Confidence is where it is. I put in the work the whole summer and into the season. So, tonight, I was able to show it.”
Robinson made seven of the Wildcats’ 16 long-range jumpers and connected a clutch jumper with 1:03 remaining, pushing a one-point margin to three at 93-90. Another bucket by Butler provided a safe distance between the two teams in the final minute. Mississippi State missed four three-pointers down the stretch in its first conference setback of the season.
Otega Oweh followed Robinson with 15 points, while Andrew Carr added 13 and Ansley Almonor had 11. Lamont Butler and Amari Williams added 10 each. Williams completed a double-double with 12 rebounds. Butler
Almonor gave the Wildcats a spark off the bench and connected on three 3-pointers, including two in a row after the hosts converted on a rare six-point play to take a two-point lead at 80-78. The back-to-back treys gave Kentucky the lead for good. Led by Almonor, Kentucky got 20 points from its reserves and had 21 assists on 34 field goal attempts.
"I think their MVP was 15 [Ansley] Almonor," Mississippi State coach Chris Jans said. "He made some timely threes when they really needed it. Our three-point shooting defense has been an issue, one that I thought we fixed in the last few games, but it bit us tonight.”
Unlike its performance in an 82-69 loss at Georgia earlier this week, Kentucky shot 56 percent from the field and made half of its field goals — 16-of-32 — from long range to hold off the gritty Bulldogs. Kentucky also outrebounded the hosts, 41-33, after falling short on the glass in its previous encounter.
Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard, who scored 34 points in a loss to the Wildcats last year, was held to 15, while Cameron Matthews led the Bulldogs with 19 points this time around.
NEXT GAME: Texas A&M at Kentucky, 6 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: ESPN2, UK Radio Network.
Photo courtesy of UK Athletics
