Blue tops White in Kentucky scrimmage; Lowe exits with injury
Freshman guard Jasper Johnson scored a game-high 10 points on Friday night to help lead his Blue squad to a 35-26 victory in Kentucky’s annual Blue/White Scrimmage at Historic Memorial Coliseum, but the Wildcats may have left the event with more questions than answers after their starting point guard suffered a shoulder injury.
Jaland Lowe, who transferred to UK from Pittsburgh after earning All-ACC honors as a sophomore, left the court in the second half of the abbreviated scrimmage with what appeared to be a separated shoulder. He had scored nine points in his 12 minutes on the floor.
“He tweaked his shoulder, so we’ll see,” Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said. “Kinda set him down out of precaution. We’ll know more tomorrow. We’ll probably get some imaging tomorrow and see how it responds tomorrow, but he’s an incredibly tough young man, so I’m sure whatever it is, he’ll battle through it well.”
Lowe’s injury put a damper on what had been an extremely competitive scrimmage with several players hitting the floor and diving out of bounds for loose balls throughout the night.
The Blue squad — which featured guards Otega Oweh, Trent Noah, Denzel Aberdeen, and Jasper Johnson, along with big men Malachi Moreno and Andrija Jelavic — led by as many as 15 points. Noah, Johnson, and Jelavic each knocked down a pair of 3-pointers.
The White squad — including guards Lowe, Collin Chandler, Kam Williams, and Brayden Hawthorne, to go along with big men Mouhamed Dioubate, Brandon Garrison and Reece Potter — battled back with aggressive defense to make it interesting in the second half, but missed Lowe’s scoring ability down the stretch.
Dioubate, a transfer from Alabama, had eight points for the White squad.
The Blue team was 6-of-14 from the 3-point arc, while the White squad struggled from the perimeter, going 1-for-12.
Good looks were difficult to come by with a revamped UK roster focusing more on athleticism, length, and defensive ability than last year’s team.
“This is what they do,” Pope said of the highly competitive action on the floor. “This group loves to compete. It’s just the right time that we’ve got to move on and compete against somebody besides ourselves.”
That somebody happens to be the No. 1 team in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll. The Purdue Boilermakers will visit Rupp Arena next Friday for a highly anticipated exhibition matchup with the No. 9 Cats.
Pope is looking forward to the challenge.
“This part of the season is always hard because every time you do something good, it also means you’re doing something bad,” the second-year UK head coach said. “… It’s going to be fun to go against another team.”