Antonio Reeves' 37 Points Wills Kentucky to Improbable 88-79 Win at Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The deck appeared to be stacked against Kentucky on Saturday afternoon inside Bud Walton Arena.
Point guards Cason Wallace and Sahvir Wheeler were unavailable due to injury, leaving the Cats without an actual ball-handler. Shooting guard CJ Fredrick was active, though per coach John Calipari, he was still "hurt bad" as a result of a cracked rib suffered a few weeks back.
UK was reeling off of a home loss to Vanderbilt on Senior Night, deflating the four-game winning streak it entered the game with on Wednesday. It now had to travel to Fayetteville and one of the most hostile environments in college basketball.
Some suggested that Kentucky should just punt, take its beating and move on to postseason play as healthy as it can be. The beat-up Cats had other plans.
Shooting guard Antonio Reeves torched the Hogs for a season-high 37 points, Oscar Tshiebwe used brute-force to claim a 12-point, 13-rebound double-double, while veteran forward Jacob Toppin notched 21 points of his own, willing UK to its most improbable victory of the season, defeating Arkansas 88-79.
Pushing and shoving was a theme for 40 minutes, but it eventually to the most pivotal sequence of the afternoon. Arkansas (19-12, 8-10 SEC) guard Devonte Davis kept things scrappy early in the second half, choosing some words with Reeves.
The ensuing play saw Tshiewbe get called for an illegal screen, leading to a huge celebration from Davis, eventually resulting in a pair of technicals for the guard, ejecting him from the game. That meant four free throws for Reeves, all of which were made. UK (21-10, 12-6) then got the ball back, leading to another basket for the Illinois State transfer.
That 6-0 swing was then followed up by his second 3-pointer of the game, putting Kentucky up 51-40 in the blink of an eye. Reeves scored 22 in the second half and shot 12-17 from the floor in a heroic performance.
"I just stayed with the process, teammates looked for me and I made shots," Reeves said postgame. "It was just me out there being me, you know? So I didn't think about having a game like this at all. I just went out there and just played."
When Calipari saw Reeves' stats after the game, even he was in awe:
"I didn't look at Antonio's points...he had 37?"
Arkansas punched back down the stretch, finding a 7-0 run to bring itself down 55-50 with over 12 minutes to go, but that would turn out to be as close as the Razorbacks would get, even after Tshiebwe fouled out with 4:53 to go in the game.
Kentucky made 26 of 33 attempts from the free-throw line, while Arkansas finished 22-34, a poor 64.7-percent clip.
Without a point guard to start with, the Wildcats found themselves having to balance not being dominated in such a chippy affair while also ducking foul trouble with such a thin backcourt. With how physical the matchup was, finding that balance was not an option.
The Hogs were on a mission to frustrate the Cats, primarily Tshiebwe. The star forward was bodied up and harassed by Arkansas forwards all game, leading to a scuffle early in the first half between him and forward Makhel Mitchell, where Tshiebwe separated himself via a twist and an elbow, catching the head of Mitchell.
"(Tshiebwe) starts getting frustrated. You know, you just get grabbed and pushed and held enough that you get frustrated. Watch the tape. They're not allowed to block out facing him," Calipari said.
That tie-up set off the reigning National Player of the Year, as he proceeded to erupt for 12 points and nine boards in the half, barreling through traffic to multiple easy baskets in the paint.
Tshiebwe's presence freed up some looks for Reeves, who had to operate as the PG for most of the afternoon due to the absence of Wallace and Wheeler. The sharpshooter made just one trey early, a splash from the top of the key to give UK its biggest lead of the half at 28-20.
"I just caught fire," Reeves said. "Everything I do with my shot, it just went in. It was one of those type of games (where I was) just staying aggressive and found my spots on the floor."
Instead of roaming the perimeter, Reeves attacked, getting into the lane for plenty of what have become patented running floaters. He made five of seven shots in the half, leading all scorers with 15.
"The way we played offensively, the way we moved the ball and the way we posted it, what we did, Oscar early in the game, was really good stuff," Calipari said.
Arkansas countered with a balanced attack, led by star guard Nick Smith Jr, who had nine points and four assists on 4-10 shooting. Ricky Council IV — who led the Hogs with 20 points against UK earlier this season in Lexington — electrified Bud Walton Arena with a thunderous dunk, headlining his eight points in the first 20 minutes.
After avoiding a flagrant foul earlier in the half, Tshiebwe was again tangled, leading to the connection of another elbow, leading to a flagrant 1 foul on the big man.
Both teams flew up and the down the court, but the Cats staved off any major runs from the Hogs, shooting 51 percent from the floor as a team while making all nine of their free-throw attempts in the half.
"It just shows what type of team we are. We've been through a lot, and we understand teams are going to be aggressive with us," Toppin said. "But we're not going for any of this. So they try to they tried to punk us and we weren't having it. So we came back at them."
Fredrick played just 15 minutes and didn't score, but he did find four assists. Adou Thiero was asked to play major minutes, logging 24, where the freshman tallied seven points and five boards, all of which were crucial. Sophomore forward Daimion Collins fouled out in just five minutes, but even he landed four points and a pair of boards, while veteran center Lance Ware filled in for Tshiebwe with five rebounds of his own.
Arkansas shot just 30.6 percent as a team in the second half, though it had four players reach double-figures scoring. Smith finished with 25 points.
"It wasn't just fun to win; it was fun to play in," Toppin said. That's the type of atmosphere we love to play in. Even when I'm back home playing in the city, that's what it is: everyone's gritty, everyone wants to win. So it was good basketball today. We fought. We understood that they were coming in trying to beat us and we weren't gonna let that happen. So we stayed together, we stayed connected and we came out with the 'W.'"
The improbable win places Kentucky as the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament, meaning the Wildcats earn a double-bye into the quarterfinals. While the opponent is still to be determined, UK will next play in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena on March 10. It will be the final game to tipoff that evening.
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