Mark Pope’s Snaps Skid Club, Chair South Carolina

Kentucky defeated South Carolina 80-57, ending a two-match loss match.
Wildcats held gamecocks in a low season 19 points of the first half.
Kentucky was led by 17 Otega Oweh points.

Lexington – Steamroller that is SEC this season – a championship that appears at the pace to set a record for most NCAA tour offers for a single conference – means that no game can be considered a guaranteed victory.

The team closest to this, however, is South Carolina. At 10-12 in general (and 0-9 in the SEC matches) on Saturday, it was a Kentucky basketball in a two-game slide after obstacles in Arkansas and Ole Miss, respectively-could not afford to break.

Wildcats no.

The United Kingdom attacked in South Carolina, 80-57, at Rupp Arena to avoid the first three-game loss match since the forgotten 2020-21 campaign.

“It means a lot. That’s really important to us,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “Gamedo is the biggest game we’ve ever played.”

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Saturday meant a little more, Pope said for many reasons.

First and foremost: the health of its list. Or, in this case, its absence.

Kentucky (16-7, 5-5 sec), ranked No. 14 in USA Today’s latest coaches and Associated Press Top 25 surveys, had lost the starting point Lamont Butler past three matches due to a shoulder damage. Then, his keeper Jaxson Robinson – who was most responsible at the Butler point aside – suffered a hand injury on Friday during practice.

With the status of both in the air, the Pope said he woke up at 3am on Saturday. He could not fall asleep again.

“Because I really, generally didn’t know if I would enter the gym and I wouldn’t have Lamont and no jaxson and without a car, right?” Pope said, referring to the reserve point Kerr Krisa, who has been sitting in the last two months with a leg injury. “And that would have been a really nice challenge for us.”

The pope could rest easily after the game came out, though: Butler and Robinson were part of five wildcats starting from five. Butler ended with eight points and three assists in 23 minutes. Robinson ended with six points to go along with five jumps and four assists.

“So this game (was) really important. One, because it’s a victory,” Pope said, “but two, because they got those boys on the floor, they got the game, and they are still alive. And every day We can get those where they can be a little healthier is a bonus.

“But the fact that we could do it with a victory is really, really important.”

In summary, the four Wildcats posted the length of the doubles, led by Otega Oewih’s Game-High guard 17. The other in line was ahead of Brandon Garrison with 15 (in 7-8 shots). Koby Brea and Amari Williams each contributed 10.

However, this victory over the gamecocks (10-13, 0-10) is likely to be remembered for protecting wildcats than their work.

UK held USC in a low season 19 points in the first half. And with exactly four minutes left, the gamecocks had not even broken the 50 -point obstacle. The point of the South Carolina point was the least that Kentucky has allowed in the conference game with a considerable difference. (The previous low sign was recorded by Texas A&M, which reached 69 points at a UK loss in January.)

One would be regretted not to notice, however, how the victory itself, the wildcats took care of the business in this regard: Gamecocks possessed the smallest powerful conference work, on average 70.5 points in the game before Saturday – nearly five more Little than the other -anywhere the Klista team (tenure at 75).

Wildcats were not perfect protective. But they didn’t have to be.

“We had some mistakes,” Pope said. “We can get much better, but they buy being a little more devastating, a little more aggressive at the point of attack.”

As it is, the United Kingdom will win where they can get them.

A feeling that gamecocks still should not enjoy from the beginning of the conference competition.

“I don’t think anyone really has the luxury of using transitional property for their benefit to say,” Well, these people did it against them. They did this against us. We have to do this against them, right? “” Said USC Lamont Paris coach. “So I don’t even know who we play until someone tells me. … I spend most of our time – especially in the years where we are fighting in every aspect of the game – trying to I help our boys get as well as they can get, so that our product is as good as it can take.

The Pope is sure that Saturday’s enemy will defeat a league rival quite quickly.

“They have been competitive every single game,” he said. “Is a good team with truly talented players.”

For those who, before the game, simply looked at the gamecock record and torn it out as a stress -free win for wildcats, do not believe Pope’s players felt that way.

He will not allow them.

“He’s never thinking who we play the game behind, blah blah blah,” said Brea, who removed a long game and six high career assists on Saturday. “It always has to do with (this) game. He is definitely really good to keep us locked in the present and what is before us.”

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