Was Kentucky "lucky" to beat Ole Miss?

By: LARRY VAUGHT

LEXINGTON — Was Kentucky lucky to beat Mississippi 89-86 in overtime here Tuesday night in its Southeastern Conference opener?

The Rebels’ Jarvis Summers missed a shot at the end of regulation — Ole Miss shot 49 percent from the field and 52.4 percent in the second half — that would have given No. 1 Kentucky one of its most stunning home-court losses in recent memory and easily the biggest in coach John Calipari’s tenure at UK.

Instead, the shot didn’t go in and UK prevailed in overtime thanks in part to Cauley-Stein’s rebounding and clutch shooting by Andrew and Aarron Harrison.

“I thought the shot was going in,” said Cauley-Stein. “Everything else had. I feel like they played really, really good, but we just stayed the course and kept on staying the course and kept on doing the stuff we know. The outcome takes care of itself. Just do the right things at the right time.”

Ole Miss did that.

The Rebels were 9-for-17 from 3-point range and 19-for-22 at the foul line. They battled UK on near even terms on the boards and lost the rebounding battle just 34-32 in part because they made it a physical game that negated UK’s length and size inside. Ole Miss guards Stefan Moody (25), Jarvis Summers (23) and LaDarius White (15) combined for 63 points. That’s more points than 11 of UK’s 13 previous foes scored.

Mississippi scored more points against UK than anyone has this season — the previous high was 70 by North Carolina.
“I don’t think it was our defense. They just kept making shots,” UK guard Aaron Harrison, who had 26 points, said. “I was surprised they scored that many. Some of it was probably our defense, but their offense was that good, too.”

While no one could have expected a team that lost at home to Charleston Southern, Texas Christian and Western Kentucky to have the No. 1 Wildcats on the ropes, the Rebels did just that despite falling behind 12-0 to open the game. They refused to wilt in a game that had 13 ties and seven lead changes the second half.

Kentucky also did its part to earn the win by going 11-for-20 from 3-point range and 28-for-40 at the foul line despite some key misses down the stretch including two by freshman Trey Lyles with 15.7 seconds left that gave Ole Miss a chance for a tying 3-point shot it missed.

“I see it as his team played out of their mind and we, we kind of didn't have the fight we need. A lot of young guys not knowing, even some vets not understanding that there's no one going to surrender. They're playing their hearts out and that's what you saw from Mississippi today,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.

“Shoot, we go 11-for-20 from the 3-point line and just escape. What? Now if we go 11-for-20, you're going to say we won by 40. We just escaped. Like we just wanted to make sure the time ran out. We ran off the court. They fought us, they battled, they played plays.”

Calipari hopes the game will be a learning lesson for his team, which won its first 12 games by 12 or more points before an 8-point win at Louisville in its previous game Dec. 27.

“This is fine. Look, the bigger picture for us, we need to be in overtime games, I need to see who can do what. You saw we had an issue, they went after Tyler (Ulis), his size. They took him right to the middle of the lane and just jumped up over him,” Calipari said. “So that's why I went with a bigger lineup. I saw what he was doing and he played good.

“But there are times that if a team does that to us we got to figure out what they're doing. I've been there before and I know that is an issue because now they don't have to play. They just dribble it down and jump over a guy and shoot. There's no real defense to that.

“When you get a lead, you look like you're going to bury them and you let your foot off the gas, couple guys weren't ready to play, go in and all of a sudden it's 18-11, 18-12. What? What just happened? Then you turn around and you're down 2 at halftime. But you got to give them credit, they played.”

While it was not UK’s best overall game, there were bright spot. Aaron Harrison not only had 26 points, but he had four rebounds and two assists while playing 40 of the 45 minutes. Lyles missed the two key free throws and was 3-for-8 from the field, but still had 10 points, four assists, two assists, two blocks and a huge steal late in regulation with UK trailing.

Andrew Harrison, coming off his worst game against Louisville, had 12 points — and the huge 3-pointer late in overtime — along with five assists and two steals. Cauley-Stein had five of UK’s 10 turnovers, but three of his 12 rebounds came in overtime when UK needed them most. He also had three steals and four blocks while playing 39 minutes. Devin Booker provided needed offense with 13 points and was 3-for-3 from 3-point range. Tyler Ulis missed four of five shots, but had a game-high seven assists, including five on UK’s first five field goals in the second half.

So they all made some plays, but we're still learning and I think this is a wake up call for them that, look, teams are coming after you. So, again, we didn't play great, but you got to give that to Mississippi,” Calipari said. “I got a team with a will to win. They fought. They had every chance to let go of the rope and pout and feel bad for themselves and they didn't. They all made plays. That's a good sign.

“But we didn't fight for an entire game. We didn't battle. We fouled when we didn't need to. We got out of stances, we hit screens. We had -- they gave two, three pointers in the corners and we hit a screen and died. You can't do that. You fight.

“This is all good for this team. This team needs to keep getting hit in the mouth. I don't even know how good we can be. I don't. I mean, there's things we're going to have to do if teams try to do this kind of stuff to us spread the court and, all right, now how are we going to play? We talked about, they're going to try to beat you from the three-point line and the free-throw line and they almost did.”

But Ole Miss didn’t and that’s what should matter most to UK.