Lexington, Ky – November 21, 2023 – Michael Willis
The Wildcats added another win to their season, setting their record at 4-1 on the season when they beat the St. Joseph’s Hawks in the Monday night matchup. On paper the Cats looked to be the heavy favorite, but that was not the case. St. Joseph’s used their size inside and their ability to hit the outside shot to their advantage to send the game into overtime.
It was another slow start for the Cats. They didn’t allow any large scoring run, but they were unable to pull away from the Hawks and were tied at 17 with 11 minutes left in the first half. Kentucky was able to distance themselves with an 8-0 run near the end of the first half, but St. Joseph’s made 3 three-pointers in a row tied the game back up. It took a last possession three-pointer by Tre Mitchell to give the Cats a 41 to 38 lead at the half.
Antonio Reeves led the Wildcats in scoring with 13 points making both of his three-point attempts. Rob Dillingham also hit both of his three-point attempts and had 10 points in his 12 first half minutes. Adou Thiero led the team with 4 rebounds.
It seemed that the game was going to be an easy win after the Cats pushed the lead out to nine with 14 minutes left in the game. However, St. Joseph’s 9 to 1 run cut the lead only one. Kentucky held the lead until the Hawks overtook the Cats by one with 44 seconds left in the game. Tre Mitchell regained the lead on a put back dunk that had the Rupp Arena crowd screaming. A foul against the Cats sent St. Joseph’s to the line where they only made one sending the game into overtime.
Mitchell once again became the Rupp Arena hero making 2 three-pointers to start the overtime. The Cats never looked back from there and won the game 96 to 88.
Three Kentucky players scored more than twenty points in a game since 2009. D.J. Wagner and Tre Mitchell both ended the game with 22 points. Antonio Reeves was the third player scoring 20 points.
Justin Edwards had a much better game than his previous ones scoring 12 points making 4 of his 6 shots. Despite not scoring a point, Reed Sheppard had the highest +/- with a 16. No other players on Kentucky had higher than 7. This shows Sheppard’s ability to affect a game with other aspects of his game besides scoring. Kentucky will play next on Friday November 25th against Marshall. The game time is set at 7pm and can be viewed on SEC Network.
