Kentucky rolls past Lipscomb, 97-68, in return to Rupp Arena

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A week after a big win over Duke, the Kentucky Wildcats wasted no time in their return to Rupp Arena.

The No. 9-ranked Cats jumped out to a double-digit advantage in the opening minutes against Lipscomb and rolled to a 97-68 victory Tuesday night. It was UK’s first game since beating then-No. 6 Duke last Tuesday, a victory that propelled them 10 spots in the latest AP Top 25 poll, a school record for the biggest one-week jump in the national rankings.

Jaxson Robinson, who scored just one point and was 0 for 4 from the field in the victory over Duke, led the Wildcats with 20 points against Lipscomb, scoring all of them before the first TV timeout of the second half. He also had seven rebounds in 22 minutes on the court.

Robinson was BYU’s leading scorer last season — the only UK player with any previous experience playing for Mark Pope — but he averaged only 7.7 points over his first three games as a Wildcat, though Pope praised his defensive performance against the Blue Devils.

Lamont Butler added 16 points, going 3 for 3 from 3-point range. Koby Brea was also 3 for 3 from deep and scored 12 points to go with seven rebounds. Brea is now 15 for 19 on 3-pointers as a Kentucky Wildcat. Starting center Amari Williams had nine points and 11 rebounds, and Otega Oweh scored 14 points despite playing only 15 minutes, missing most of the first half due to foul trouble.

UK shot 12 for 25 from 3-point range and outrebounded the Bisons 43-28. Lipscomb was just 5 for 29 on 3-pointers.

Kentucky (4-0) built an 8-2 lead right off the bat and jumped out to its first double-digit advantage with 14:28 left in the first half. The Cats made four of their first five 3-point attempts of the game. The last one — from Ansley Almonor — put them up 20-6 with nearly 12 minutes remaining in the first half.

UK led the Bisons (2-4) by as many as 21 points in the first half and was up by double digits for the final 33 minutes of the game. The Cats’ advantage ballooned as high as 40 points in the second half.

Lipscomb came into this one off a 66-61 loss to Western Kentucky — the Cats’ opponent on Nov. 26 — over the weekend, and the Bisons were also the first opponent for Arkansas in the John Calipari era.

Calipari’s Razorbacks led the Bisons by only four points with 7:30 left in the second half before pulling away for a 76-60 victory in their season opener two weeks ago. The game in Rupp Arena was never that close for long. At that same 7:30 mark on the second-half clock, the Cats were up 35 points on Lipscomb.

UK freshmen Travis Perry and Trent Noah — the 11th and 12th players in Pope’s rotation, both Kentucky natives — entered the game for the first time less than a minute later.

This is the first time that Kentucky has started the season with a 4-0 record since the 2016-17 Wildcats won their first seven games before a December loss to UCLA.

The Wildcats’ next game

UK will be back in Rupp Arena on Friday night for the second matchup in its four-game homestand — a date with Jackson State in the annual Unity Series that has featured an HBCU opponent. The game will be streamed live at 7 p.m. on SEC Network+.

As of now, Jackson State is the most lightly regarded opponent on Kentucky’s schedule this season. The Tigers entered Tuesday with an 0-4 record, occupying the No. 322 spot in the KenPom ratings. That website is predicting a 92-63 win for the Wildcats on Friday night.

Before they come to Lexington, the Tigers will face Western Kentucky in Bowling Green on Wednesday night.