Tennessee's Kevin Punter drives past a Kentucky defender on Tuesday. The top-ranked Wildcats won going away, 66-48.
photo by Tennessee Athletics
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Just like 25 previous opponents, Tennessee didn’t have the answer to beating entucky.
The undefeated and top-ranked Wildcats (26-0, 13-0 SEC), off to the best start in Kentucky basketball history, stormed past the Vols, 66-48, Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 21,678 – there were plenty of blue-clad fans on hand – at Thompson-Boling Arena.
Tennessee fell to 14-11 overall and 6-7 in conference play.
"They battled us a little bit," Kentucky coach John Calipari said of the Vols. "They got the better of us, but we made some plays down the stretch of the first half to make sure we had a little gap. It's hard to play against that zone. They were prepared for us."
Junior Kevin Punter led the Vols with 14 points, while senior Josh Richardson tallied 10.
Kentucky was led by Devin Booker, who netted 18 points, despite shooting 5-of-16 from the floor and 2-of-9 from 3-point range. Andrew Harrison added 14 points.
Tennessee's defense played havoc with Kentucky all night. The Wildcats shot just 41.5 percent from the floor, including 37.5 in the second half. Kentucky made 5-of-22 3-pointers, 1-of-9 in the second half.
The Vols shot even worse -- 21-of-56 (37.5 percent) from the field and just 2-of-17 (11.8 percent) from 3-point distance.
"If you make 10 3s like we'd hope for, now that's 24 more points," Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall said. "The complexion of the game changes, but you're not going to beat that team if you don't shoot the ball from behind the 3-point line because they don't give you enough baskets around the rim or two-point opportunities."
The Vols were within seven points for the game's first 31 minutes. They cut their deficit to four points on three different occasions midway through the second half, bringing the crowd to a fever pitch. Punter finished a layup off a baseball pass from Richardson with nine minutes left to pull the Vols to within 48-44.
Kentucky took firm control with a 10-0 run to take the first double-figure lead of the game with less than seven minutes to go on a Karl-Anthony Towns three-point play. The layup, which was Towns' first attempt of the game, extended the Wildcats lead to 55-44 with 6:54 left in the game. Trey Lyles' putback with five minutes put UK up 58-44.
Kentucky outscored Tennessee 18-4 over the final nine minutes and cruised to the win.
UK took its first seven-point lead on a Cauley-Stein dunk with 17:20 left at 40-33.
The Vols hung close for the first half, leading with less than three minutes to go. Kentucky hit a pair of 3-pointers in the final 43 seconds to take a 35-31 lead into the locker room. The game was tied on five different occasions over the final 10 minutes as the Vols shot 54.2 from the floor with Punter leading the way with eight points.
Tennessee received big first-half contributions from unlikely sources in Devon Baulkman (6 points) and Tariq Owens (5 points). Owens had nine total points in 11 SEC games this season coming into the game.
Booker led all scorers with 11 points in the first half and the undersized Vols outrebounded Kentucky 15-13.
The Vols are now 4-13 all-time against the top-ranked teams with the four wins coming since 1966.
Kentucky leads the all-time series 151-67. The 67 wins are the most by any opponent vs. the Wildcats all-time.
The Vols return to action on Saturday, Feb. 21 at Ole Miss. Action tips at 7:30 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPNU and heard on the Vol Network.