Kentucky Flipped the Script with Second-Chance Points in Win over Tennessee

Kentucky didn’t make it easy on itself in the first half on the road against Tennessee on Saturday. The Cats had only two second-chance points in the first half. It’s no wonder that Kentucky crawled into a 17-point first-half deficit, trailing 42-31 at the half.

Tennessee had eight offensive rebounds in the first half, dominating the boards early. UK was outrebounded 20-12 in the first half. Then, the script was flipped.

“Coach [Cody] Fueger loses sleep every single night about us getting active on the glass,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said postgame. “And clearly it was really important for us.”

Kentucky responded in the second half. The Cats outrebounded Tennessee 17-16 in the second half, amid a 49-36 second-half comeback. Kentucky had 13 offensive rebounds in the second half, which allowed for 17 second-chance points. It was night and day from the first half.

Kentucky’s Frontcourt Leads the Charge

The second-half rebounding effort from Kentucky was led by its frontcourt. Mo Diobuate, despite fouling out late, had all four of his offensive rebounds in the second half, totaling six rebounds on the night.

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Meanwhile, while Malachi Moreno had a slow night offensively, his rebounding impact was felt. Moreno had two offensive rebounds in the second half, part of his four total second-half rebounds. While he only had three points on the night, Moreno was tied with Dioubate for a team-high six rebounds.

Analytics tell the story even more. Moreno’s rebounding rate of 18.8, which estimates the percentage of missed shots the player rebounded while on the floor, was a team-high for Kentucky. Dioubate’s rebounding rate of 15.3 was second on Kentucky.

However, neither player came close to Tennessee’s Jaylen Carey. Carey was dominant on the glass, grabbing a game-high seven rebounds and posting an excellent 36.9 offensive rebounding rate, as well as a 20.5 rebounding rate. It didn’t make much of a difference for the Vols as they finished with five second-chance points in the second half en route to a 79-78 Kentucky victory.