KNOXVILLE – Kentucky’s first half against Tennessee may have aged coach John Calipari a bit. His young Wildcats did some maturing of their own in the second half.
No. 20 Kentucky survived poor shooting and weak rebounding before halftime to beat Tennessee 64-58 on Sunday and finish second in the Southeastern Conference’s East Division.
“What I told them was we grew up today,” Calipari said. “For the first time this year we did not play the way we started.”
At the heart of that effort was freshman Brandon Knight, who was held scoreless for the first 19:57 but finished with 19 points.
The victory kept Kentucky from having to play an extra game in the SEC tournament, which starts Thursday. The Wildcats (22-8, 10-6) will get a bye for the first round and ended a four-game road losing skid.