LEXINGTON, Ky. - This time Tennessee's upset bid never had a chance.
Instead Kentucky emphatically exacted its revenge for last month's loss to the Volunteers.
The 13th-ranked Wildcats buried Tennessee under a barrage of first-half 3-pointers and led by as many as 28 points in a dominant 83-58 rout of the abject Vols at Rupp Arena on Tuesday night, three weeks after Tennessee stunned then-N0. 4 Kentucky 82-80 in Knoxville.
After winning four straight games, Tennessee (14-12, 6-7 Southeastern Conference) has dropped three of its past four, though rarely have these Vols been as overwhelmed as they were on Tuesday.
Kentucky's 25-point lead midway through the second half was the largest deficit Tennessee has faced this season, surpassing the 21-point advantage current No. 1 Gonzaga, the only unbeaten team left in college basketball, built in the first half of an eventual 10-point win against the Vols in Nashville in December.
Tennessee's largest margin of defeat this season was 13 points against Chattanooga in the season opener and at SEC contender Florida last month.
Kentucky (21-5, 11-2), which made just 6-of-24 3-pointers in its upset loss in Knoxville last month, drained 10-of-18 attempts from beyond the arc, and the barrage was too much for Tennessee to overcome as the Vols sought the first season sweep of their border rivals since the 1998-99 season.
Malik Monk and Derek Willis did most of the damage with each making four 3s, while Tennessee shot just 31 percent from the field and 2-of-9 from 3-point range during a first half in which the Vols fell behind by as many as 17 points.
Tennessee scored the first five points of the game and led for nearly four minutes in the early going, but the advantage was short-lived as Kentucky caught fire from long range.
The first of four first-half 3s from Willis at the 16:06 mark gave the Wildcats a lead they would never relinquish, but the real damage wasn't inflicted on the hosts for another couple of minutes.
After Jordan Bone's 3 made it 20-15, Kentucky ripped off an 11-0 run in 100 seconds.
Monk drained 3s to start and end the run, and in between Mychal Mulder hit from distance and Bam Adebayo dunked back a miss to put Kentucky up 31-15 and prompt a Tennessee timeout with 8:09 left in the first half.
Williams made a layup to break Tennessee's five-minute, 25-second field-goal drought, and Bone's jumper made it an 11-point game before the Wildcats stretched the lead out again.
Willis hit another 3, Monk drained a jumper and Adebayo dunked, and Kentucky led 47-32 at halftime.
Tennessee cut its deficit to 13 points on Admiral Schofield's three-point play early in the second half, but Kentucky scored twice in transition, the first an alley-oop from De'Aaron Fox to Willis, off turnovers and pushed its lead to 19 (59-40) barely five minutes out of halftime.
The Vols then went scoreless for more than five minutes as Kentucky's lead ballooned to 27.
Bone (17 points) and Schofield (15) led Tennessee in scoring, but Williams scored just eight points on seven shots, top scorer Robert Hubbs III was also quiet with seven points and Tennessee's guards other than Bone shot a combined 2-of-18 from the field.
Monk scored 20 and Willis added 16 to lead Kentucky.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.