Kentucky always looks impressive but it seems when big games stand in the way of the Cats, they take their game to another level. Tonight, against their first ranked opponent since Louisville in December, the Wildcats looked like a fine-tuned machine, dismantling the Razorbacks on their way to their 29th win of the season. 

With the win tonight, UK clinched its 46th Southeastern Conference regular-season title.  A small goal for a team that has very high aspirations. 

Trey Lyles has come on strong late in the season for the Wildcats. After an injury prior to the season and a mid-season illness, the big blue faithful hasn’t had the opportunity to watch the former Mr. Indiana basketball play at his highest level until lately. He finished the night with 18 points alongside Andrew Harrison, who also scored 18 on the night. 

The Razorbacks have had UK’s number in recent memory, winning 4 of the last 5 meetings, including a sweep of the Cats last year. Even Coach Calipari was willing to admit that this game meant a lot to his young Cats. Saying that the practices leading up to it were some of the best of the year. 

Kentucky was ready for Arkansas’ high speed attack, but it seemed like the Razorbacks weren’t ready for a UK team that can also run. The Wildcats poured in 110 just last week against Auburn and Coach Cal said that they were looking to hit that mark again tonight if they needed to. 

Arkansas (23-6, 12-4, SEC) is the SEC’s top-scoring team, averaging 79.5 ppg. Against UK’s nation leading defense, they were unable to get the looks they are accustomed to and were held to 38% shooting from the field. 

Tyler Ulis added 14 points for the Cats, while his backcourt partner, Devin Booker scored 10 of his own. Kentucky shot 48% percent from the field as a team and out rebounded the Razorbacks 38-32.

One of the most impressive stats of the season is that the Wildcats have utterly dominated all of their high-profile opponents. Beating those 6 teams by an average of 20.3 point. Those six schools include; Louisville, UCLA, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas and North Carolina. 

Michael Qualls poured in 17 points for Arkansas, but admitted that UK was too much. “I’ll give it to them, they were taking it to the boards and taking shots. I don’t think we made a 3-point basket in the first half and thats big because we can shoot the ball really well.”

The Wildcats jumped out to a quick 11-2 lead, sparked by an opening play alley-oops dunk by Trey Lyles. The Cats went wire to wire with the lead and never showed signs of weakness. Kentucky went into halftime leading 42-26. 

Coming out of the locker rooms, UK kept their foot on the gas and extended the lead to 31 before they slowed the pace down to grind out the game. Finalizing their 29-0 record with a 84-67 win in front of a sell out crowd in Rupp Arena. 

UP NEXT

Arkansas travels to South Carolina on Thursday

Kentucky head to Georgia on Tuesday