Brea, Kriisa spark Cats off bench in win over Bucknell

LEXINGTON, Ky. — After No. 23 Kentucky delivered another impressive offensive performance on Saturday in a 100-72 win over Bucknell, John Griffin joined the ranks of opposing coaches who have expressed admiration for what Mark Pope has done in very short order with the Wildcats.

“Mark Pope has done an excellent job of assembling a roster of very good basketball players, very good college basketball players, and they’ve quickly — through hard work, I can only imagine — found the magic wand of unselfishness,” said the Bison head coach. “It’s impressive.”

Kentucky (2-0) topped the century mark for the second time in two games under its new head coach. The Wildcats knocked down 13 3-pointers, including six by grad senior guard Koby Brea, and dished out 23 assists on 38 made baskets, including 12 by senior point guard Kerr Kriisa.

Pope called Brea, the Dayton transfer who has opened his UK career 10-of-12 from the arc, an offensive efficiency “maestro” on the floor.

Added Griffin: “Having scouted Koby Brea before, I have not seen him miss twice in a row… he’s a professional shooter, make no mistake about it. I think they recruited him knowing he’s the best shooter in the nation from a 3-point percentage standpoint.”

As for Kriisa, who made his way to Lexington after stops at Arizona and West Virginia, Pope said he’s bringing energy to the Cats with a goal of being the nation’s top “pace guy.”

“For him to kind of bring that kind of juice and panache and skill and excitement and unselfishness and kind of magic to the floor (is a big key for UK),” Pope said.

Even more impressively, both of UK’s standouts came off the bench to spark the Cats.

“It’s been a lot of fun, especially with (Kriisa),” Brea said. “Just seeing how we’re able to come in, and the energy of the game just changes with his speed and everything. Sometimes we kinda need that.”

Kentucky also got a double-double from grad senior center Amari Williams (13 points, 14 rebounds), 14 points from grad senior wing Jaxson Robinson, 11 points from grad senior forward Andrew Carr, and 10 points from junior guard Otega Oweh.

What Pope liked even more than another offensive explosion, however, was the Cats’ attention to a point of emphasis this week in practice. UK pulled down 57 rebounds, including 22 on the offensive end of the floor leading to 19 second-chance points.

“It’s a gift as a coach to have guys that are curious and guys that are humble and guys that want to get better,” the UK boss said. “We don’t use the words curious very often and we don’t talk about humility very often. But we have a ton of that on our team.

“For these guys to respond to a challenge — we have been kind of sitting on this for maybe 10 days… we are just not getting to where we need to get on the glass — and for these guys to come up and put up almost 60 rebounds today is incredibly gratifying as a coach. It’s a really important step for us as a team.”

The Cats’ big men — Williams, Carr, Brandon Garrison, and Ansley Almonor — combined for 15 offensive rebounds.

“We had four guys that are playing the bulk of the minutes (at) the four and the five,” Pope said. “They all have three or more offensive rebounds. And that’s pretty cool. Really a tremendous effort by those guys.”

Kentucky also put in a strong effort on the defensive end of the floor, holding the Bison to 39.7% shooting from the field and turning 14 turnovers into 22 points.

Bucknell (2-1) was led by senior forward Ian Motta with 18 points. Senior guard Josh Bascoe chipped in with 15 for the Bison.

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In this “Rapid Recap” feature, we touch on some quick-hitters from the UK victory…

KEY MOMENT:

Bucknell hung within 14 points of the Cats at the 17:21 mark of the second half, but just over two minutes later, Kentucky was back ahead by 20 after 3-pointers by Koby Brea, Kerr Kriisa, and Jaxson Robinson. UK continued to grind the Bison down and led by as many 29 points down the stretch.

GAME BALL:

Koby Brea, Kentucky — The transfer guard has been as good as advertised after leading the nation in 3-point percentage last year at Dayton. He is now 10-of-12 (83%) from the arc in two games for the Cats. He is the second player in program history to hit at least four 3-pointers in each of his first two games at UK, joining Antonio Reeves.

BY THE NUMBERS:

3rd – Time since 1980 that Kentucky has won both of its first two games by 28 or more points. The other two were 1998-1999 and 2013-2014.

4th – Player in UK program history, Amari Williams, to have 13-plus rebounds in his first two games. He joins Dan Issel, Julius Randle, and Oscar Tshiebwe in that exclusive club.

21 – Minutes played were the fewest for a UK player who recorded 12 or more assists, Kerr Kriisa, in the last 20 seasons.

26 – Career double-doubles for Amari Williams, who has recorded one in each of his first two games as a Wildcat.

68.8% – Assist rate for UK in its first two games of the season.

1978-79 – The last time Kentucky opened the season with back-to-back games scoring more than 100 points.

QUOTABLE:

“We’re playing good basketball right now, and we’ve got a chance to grow into a great team. Now we’ve got to earn it. We’ve got to work on it every day.” — UK head coach Mark Pope

UP NEXT:

Kentucky returns to action on Tuesday night in Atlanta against No. 7 Duke in the Champions Classic. The Cats and Blue Devils (2-0) will tip off in the second game of the doubleheader following Kansas and Michigan State. The broadcast is slated for approximately 9 p.m. ET on ESPN.