In Columbia, it was definitely not a beautiful basketball game, but a victory is still a victory.
With a 72-63 victory against the South Carolina Gamecocks (12-16; 3-12 SEC), the Kentucky Wildcats (18-10; 9-6 SEC) broke a three-game losing streak on Tuesday night. Together, the two teams committed 27 turnovers while shooting less than 40% from the field and 30% from beyond the arc. However, the ‘Cats were able to win a must-have win thanks to a late-game surge that was capped off by another game-winning basket by Collin Chandler.
In 37 minutes, Denzel Aberdeen scored 19 points, grabbed four rebounds, and dished out five assists for Kentucky. Mo Dioubate and Andrija Jelavić helped him with strong showings, scoring 12 and 11 points, respectively. The second half of Dioubate’s performance was particularly impressive. For the first time this year, Otega Oweh did not score in the double digits; he only had eight points at the end of the game. From afar, Chandler contributed 10 points on a 2-4 shooting clip.
Fortunately, this was one of the worst games Kentucky has played all year, but it was against a team that was having trouble. With only three games remaining in the regular season, the victory all but guarantees the Wildcats’ place in the NCAA Tournament.
With four of its first eight three-pointers coming from beyond the arc, South Carolina got off to a scorching start in the game and jumped out to a 12-5 lead. Kentucky took some time to find its rhythm, but the Gamecocks quickly calmed down from there. For a significant portion of the game, we witnessed some terrible basketball being played until Aberdeen made the decision to turn things around in his team’s favor. The ‘Cats were led by three consecutive triples from the senior guard.
