Kentucky Wildcats vs Tennessee Volunteers Match Player Stats On Mar 02, 2019

Jordan Bone scored a game-high 27 points Saturday as No. 7 Tennessee exacted revenge on No. 4 Kentucky with a 71-52 Southeastern Conference win at sold-out Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.

Avenging an 86-69 loss to the Wildcats on Feb. 16 in Lexington, the Volunteers (26-3, 14-2 SEC) kept pace with LSU atop the conference and dropped Kentucky (24-5, 13-3) a game behind. LSU owns the tiebreaker, thanks to its overtime win on Feb. 23 over Tennessee in Baton Rouge.

Grant Williams added 24 points and seven rebounds for the Volunteers, who committed just five turnovers and limited the Wildcats to 14 field goals in 44 attempts (31.8 percent). Kentucky experienced droughts of more than nine and five minutes without baskets, unable to establish its inside game or connect from the perimeter.

PJ Washington led the Wildcats with 13 points but committed four of their 16 turnovers and hit only 2 of 6 shots from the field. Kentucky never made a serious run after halftime, trailing 47-27 after Lamonte Turner converted in transition with 16:10 left. It never got closer than 14 points for the game's remainder.

Kentucky scored the game's first six points and still led 14-13 when Tyler Herro converted a driving layup with 12:42 left in the first half. At that point, Tennessee took control of the game, hitting some key 3-pointers while the Wildcats went into a major shooting slump.

Jordan Bowden's 3-ball with 7:26 remaining and Williams' 3-pointer with 4:02 left gave the Volunteers their first double-figure lead at 28-18. Bowden capped a 15-2 run that included a technical on Kentucky coach John Calipari with an alley-oop jam for a 34-20 lead with 1:54 remaining.

Missing 14 of their last 15 field-goal tries in the half, the Wildcats finished the half 6 of 26 from the field. Tennessee failed to crack 40 percent from the floor, but Bone's 3-pointer -- its fifth of the half -- with 42 seconds on the clock allowed it to take a 37-24 cushion to intermission.

--Field Level Media