Kentucky lost one it needed on Tuesday night.
For the second time this season, the Wildcats lost two straight Southeastern Conference games after falling 86-78 loss to Georgia.
After returning to the Associated Press Top 25 more than a week ago, Kentucky has suffered back-to-back SEC losses for the second time this year. The recent trend began in a 92-83 loss at No. 12 Florida last Saturday in Gainesville.
Much like the loss to the Gators, Kentucky struggled in the backcourt and committed 22 turnovers, compared to just nine for the guests. The Bulldogs (18-8, 6-7) scored 22 points off those miscues. Florida scored 22 points off 14 Kentucky turnovers that resulted in a nine-point setback for the Wildcats.
“We did a really poor job managing the press,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “We weren't in attack (mode). We weren't chasing it for nugget plays. Sometimes when you throw out a press, you just give it too much respect. We just needed a couple of ballhandlers to have enough in order to be on the attack and we just couldn't do it.”
Otega Oweh tied his career-high with 28 points and has scored in double digits in all 26 games this season. However, it wasn't enough to overcome the struggles on offense. Oweh, Andrija Jelavic, Chandler and Malachi Moreno combined for 11 turnovers, including four by Oweh.
“The press was distracting for us, for sure,” Pope said. “We ended up playing on our heels and it was actually hard for us to kind of establish anything other than early in the halfcourt. Our lead guards did a poor job going back and demanding the ball so we could get into a familiar space. We just did a poor job, we really did. Georgia did a nice job of not allowing us to do that (and) we ended up not functioning as well as we do."
Kentucky trailed by 12 at 69-57 with 9:20 remaining but rallied and narrowed the margin to 81-78 with 2:13 remaining. However, they made just one field goal on seven attempts in the final two minutes, coupled with a critical turnover by Oweh with 1:11 remaining.
Georgia made 14 3-pointers and got 29 points from its bench. The Bulldogs connected on eight treys in the second half that thwarted any hopes for a Kentucky comeback down the stretch.
“We weren’t good defensively tonight,” Pope said. “In the second half, they shoot 57 percent from the 3-point line. They're the lowest assist-per-field-goal-made team in our league, and they were 20 and seven tonight. That's just a poor commentary on our defensive effort.
“Inexplicably, to start the second half, we just abandoned defensive assignments, and also Georgia made some good plays. That was a disappointing effort from us, and it's gonna be hard to win when you let people shoot like that.”
Sparked by a career-high six 3-pointers by Collin Chandler, Kentucky made 12 treys of its own. Chandler finished with 18 points and said the Wildcats weren’t attentive enough in the second half.
“It kind of felt like we lost focus for a second and it really slipped away from us in the second half, I feel like we were pretty focused for a good amount of the first half,” he said.
Kentucky led by seven with seven minutes remaining in the first half, but Georgia scored 17 of the last 22 points of the half and led 39-34 at the break. The Wildcats (17-9, 8-5) went scoreless in the last 2:25 of the half, despite hitting nine of their first 18 shots of the contest.
It marked Georgia's first win in Lexington since the 2008-09 season and only the fourth all-time in Rupp Arena.
Gametracker: Kentucky at Auburn, 7:30 p.m.CT Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network on 94.7 The Mix and WiLLiE 102.
Otega Oweh, who matched his career-high with 28 points, watches as the closing seconds tick off the clock in Kentucky's 86-78 loss to Georgia on Tuesday. (Photo by Les Nicholson)
