BOX SCORE: High-level three-point shooting leads helps Kentucky upset Mississippi State
Basketball is a make or miss sport. Mark Pope‘s first Kentucky team is quickly showing us that they are a make or miss team. After a woeful perimeter shooting performance in a road loss to Georgia on Tuesday, the law of averages came back around in Starkville to cap off the program’s Bulldog Week in SEC play.
Kentucky extended their ridiculously long regular season winning streak over Mississippi State to 19 games with a 95-90 win on Saturday night at Humphrey Coliseum. Three-point shooting played a massive role. The Cats poured in 16 makes on 32 attempts and posted 1.34 points per possession in the road win over the No. 14 team in the land.
Jaxson Robinson got the party started in the first half with four three-point field goals and finished the game shooting 7-of-10 from deep. The BYU transfer scored a game-high 27 points and played a huge role in helping Kentucky build a 14-point lead early in the second half.
But he wasn’t the only Wildcat to have a big moment with perimeter shotmaking in Starkville.
With the game in the balance, Fairleigh Dickinson transfer Ansley Almonor put together his best stretch in a Kentucky jersey. The forward poured in shots from deep to turn a Mississippi State 80-78 lead with 7:59 left in the game into a 89-82 Kentucky lead with 5:16 left. That swing was exactly what the road team needed to flip the game.
Kentucky won the rebounding battle (41-33) but ball security (13 turnovers for an 18.3% turnover rate) was an issue. Kentucky also overcame a big three-point shot volume game from Mississippi State with the home team squeezing off 40 three-point attempts.
This make or miss sport can be fairly simple for all of us to analyze in multiple instances. Does the ball go in the hoop? Kentucky made shots at The Hump and that was ultimately the biggest difference in this battle between SEC heavyweights.
Box Score: Kentucky vs. Mississippi State
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