Ella McCarthy

emccarthy@adgnewsroom.com

Ella McCarthy covers state politics and the state Supreme Court. Before joining the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, she covered Austin City Hall for the Austin American-Statesman, and before that, held a fellowship with ABC News in Washington, D.C., where she covered national politics. A graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism, her work has been recognized by the Hearst Foundation, the Missouri Press Association and LION Publishers in the LION local journalism awards. She contributed to the Statesman’s coverage of a two-city shooting rampage that won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for breaking news coverage.

Otega Oweh helped push the Cats forward, but it was some big minutes by Trent Noah that helped really seal the deal for Kentucky in Bud Walton Arena.

The sophomore forward ended the game with nine points on 1/3 shooting and 1/1 from 3-point land. He also added seven rebounds in 19 minutes played.

With the injuries to the Kentucky roster, it has been well talked about that one of these role players was going to have to step into bigger roles as the season kept rolling. We have seen it be Jasper Johnson and Mo Dioubate, but tonight was Noah’s turn to shine. With his playing time shrinking before the injury to Kam Williams, seeing the Kentucky native take full advantage of his opportunity is one the BBN will love to see.

This might be the biggest win of the season. Now, let’s hope they keep the momentum going into another big week as the Cats keep fighting for a top-4 seed in the SEC.

As they have for much of this season, Kentucky was faced with plenty of adversity in their 85-77 win at Arkansas on Saturday night. The Wildcats actually started this one off hot, going up as much as 13 in the first haf before taking a seven-point lead into halftime. Then, the second half came, where things got very chippy.

In the span of 38 seconds, from 14:49 to the 14:11 mark of the second half, Kentucky was given three technical fouls that helped Arkansas take the lead, but what happened after that had every Wildcat fan proud of their team. Kentucky responded with a 5-0 run to regain the lead where they never gave it up from then on. The Wildcats stretched their lead to as much as 10 points from that point and on, really taking advantage and playing into the hands of how the game was called with so many fouls.

Kentucky responded and showed fight on the road after getting three technicals called on them. They could have folded in an environment that got extremely loud after those fouls, but they used it as fuel. Mark Pope talked after the game about his team’s incredible resiliency and what emotions were flowing during and after those fouls, which turned out to be the turning point in the game.

“What I loved about that stretch is the guys’ fight and determination,” Pope said of Kentucky’s response after the three technical fouls. “Even with the three techs happening back to back to back, I felt like it was coming from exactly the right place in our team that we are searching for that core of fight and undaunted competitive spirit and it just overflowed a tiny bit, but we felt right. The techs were after, like, really extraordinarily competitive plays and so we definitely have to be a little more disciplined, but I actually the gym felt good at that point. It felt like, man, these guys are here to fight. So yes, we can clean up a little bit, but I wouldn’t trade the heart of it for anything.”

That’s what Kentucky showed when things looked to be going sideways is heart. They had a lot of it down the stretch on Saturday and it’s what helped them pull away in the final minutes.