The Mountain Mamba leads Kentucky to big halftime lead over Tennessee

Trent Noah, Travis Perry and Brandon Garrison have combined for five made 3-pointers in the first half to give Kentucky a 33-26 lead at the break against No. 5 Tennessee. It’s just that kind of day for the Cats.

UK closed out the half on an 11-3 run with UT failing to score a field goal in the last 5:03, the home team shooting an impressive 41.4 percent from the field and 50 percent from three while the Volunteers are an abysmal 34.6 percent overall and 0.0 percent from deep (0-5) — an 8-9 clip at the line making up essentially a third of their scoring output with just nine made field goals.

The Mountain Mamba himself leads Kentucky with nine points on 3-4 from three, followed by Otega Oweh, Koby Brea and Brandon Garrison with five points apiece, Lamont Butler with four, Travis Perry with three and Ansley Almonor with two. The Wildcats have also forced four steals on six total turnovers for the Volunteers, turning those opportunities into six points while coughing it up just four times themselves.

Felix Okpara leads UT with eight, followed by Zakai Zeigler with six and Jordan Gainey with four.

One heck of a first half for the Cats, especially defensively. It was the team’s best stretch of the season against ranked competition on that end of the floor. Let’s keep it up in the second and close out this sweep.