At The Half: Georgia leads Kentucky by 10; torpedoes incoming

Earlier in the week, Joe Lunardi said a loss to Georgia will torpedo Kentucky Basketball‘s season and knock the Wildcats out of the tournament conversation. Well, through one half in Athens, the radar shows torpedoes headed toward Lexington as the Wildcats trail the Bulldogs, 42-32, in a must-win scenario.

Part of the problem for Kentucky is the team is without two of its guards, CJ Fredrick and Sahvir Wheeler, who are each out with injuries. John Calipari started Cason Wallace, Antonio Reeves, Chris Livingston, Jacob Toppin, and Oscar Tshiebwe without them, and already went to Adou Thiero for some help off the bench. Thiero gave 15 good minutes, his first time since January.

Adding to the Wildcats’ depth concerns in the backcourt, Wallace picked up two quick fouls 20 seconds apart, forcing Calipari to bench his best guard and only ballhandler minutes into the game. He did, however, break his own rule and sub Wallace back in to stop Georgia’s early run. The Bulldogs led by eight early before Antonio Reeves got hot and made it a game for a stretch.

He has 15 points at halftime. This may be a game when Kentucky needs the University of Antonio Reeves.

In the middle, Georgia is swarming Oscar Tshiebwe to prevent another superhuman performance from him inside. Tshiebwe has six points, five rebounds and four assists at intermission.

A couple of other player observations: Livingston got killed defensively in the first 20 minutes, a trend that can’t continue out of halftime. Then there’s Georgia’s leading scorer, Terry Roberts, emerging from his questionable playing status for four points in 11 reserve minutes.

As a team, Kentucky is 11-for-31 from the field and Reeves made over half of those shots. Georgia leads on the glass, too.

20 minutes to dodge the torpedoes.