Kentucky Beat: Otega Oweh beats Oklahoma again in epic SEC Tournament Second Round battle

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In sports, it’s tough for the sequel to live up to the prequel. It’s even tougher for the sequel to exceed the prequel. Even more so, it’s tough for a highly-anticipated matchup to live up to the hype.

That’s what makes Kentucky’s 85-84 Second Round win over Oklahoma in the SEC Tournament Thursday night so impressive. Not just Kentucky winning, but the whole game felt like a heavyweight fight. It felt like a Round of 32 matchup going into it. The game ended up having the feel of an Elite Eight game.

Otega Oweh’s game-winning basket with just half a second to play lifted the No. 6 seeded Kentucky Wildcats to an 85-84 win over the No. 14 seeded Oklahoma Sooners. They were the final two of Oweh’s 27 points Thursday night, just 15 days after he scored 28 points at Oklahoma. Not to mention, Oweh hit a game-winning basket with less than 10 seconds to play in that game to culminate scoring the last 18 points in that game.

Kentucky had an 83-80 lead with 34 seconds to play, but turnovers on back-to-back possessions led to two Oklahoma baskets. Suddenly the Sooners led 84-83 with 5.6 seconds to play, and a disastrous collapse was very much inevitable for the Wildcats. Not to mention, Kentucky had also led 80-70 with 1:26 to play

But this is a resilient Kentucky team. Mark Pope drew up a play for Otega Oweh to get the inbounds pass and go score. Score Oweh did, and Kentucky’s mental toughness to overcome the Sooners last haymaker led to another dramatic win against them for the Wildcats.

“What makes that moment so spectacular is he (Oweh) was somehow able, our team was somehow able, to move past the devastation of just kicking to the curb an emotional, hard-fought win and losing Lamont and all the things that came with that,” Pope said. “These guys, these really special guys, that love Kentucky so much and want so badly to perform for this team, they were like, ‘Okay, this thing went totally bad on us, we totally
messed this up, all of us, myself included’, and then they still stayed present enough to make a game-winning play in the last five seconds. That’s why that play is so special, right? That’s why I couldn’t be more proud of Otega and the whole team for doing that.”

As Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra once famously said, it was deja vu all over again.

“It was super unbelievable to see it again,” Kentucky graduate guard Koby Brea said about Oweh’s second game-winner against Oklahoma this season. “The first time, it felt like we were in a movie going through it. This time it felt like a movie to this. He has a part two to this, creating a sequel. We’ll have to see what’s next.”

Before looking at what’s next, let’s put Oweh’s heroics and performance and this instant classic of a Second Round game into context.

This game was always going to be a battle. Even when the Wildcats shot-out-of-a-cannon sprinted to an 8-0 lead in the first 1:55 of the game, Oklahoma wasn’t going to go away. This Sooners team had won three straight games coming in with their NCAA Tournament hopes on the line, so they were used to pressure and facing adversity like the 8-0 blitzing Kentucky threw at them to start this game. In addition, Oklahoma was 13-0 through non-conference play. This is a talented and good Oklahoma team, one that is also battle-tested.

So when Oklahoma rallied to take a 28-25 lead late in the first half, it caused for anxiety to sweep through the massive Big Blue Nation presence inside Bridgestone Arena. But it shouldn’t have been unexpected. Oklahoma had given Kentucky everything it could handle back in late February, and they were throwing the kitchen sink at Kentucky in the Second Round of the SEC Tournament Thursday night.

After hitting an early three-pointer in Kentucky’s 8-0 sprint start, Oweh was held scoreless for the 14:34 of game time. Then, with 4:11 left in the first half and Kentucky trailing 28-25, Oweh went into full-on attack mode. His and-one tied the game at 28, and Oweh finished the first half with 11 points as Kentucky clinged to a 40-38 halftime lead.

Oweh stars in spite of Lamont Butler leaving with a shoulder injury

Kentucky head coach Mark Pope talked after beating LSU on Senior Night last week about how crucial it was to have the same starting five for consecutive games for the first time in a while.

Unfortunately, more adversity hit the injury front Thursday night when Kentucky graduate point guard Lamont Butler left the game midway through the first half with a shoulder injury. It’s the same left shoulder that Butler has battled through for a majority of this season, and his status is unknown going into Friday and the rest of the Postseason.

“I was really proud of our guys and our team because your heart is just breaking for Lamont,” Pope said. “We already have Jack (Jaxson Robinson) sitting over there. Now Lamont misses the opportunity to be a part of this. It is devastating. It’s devastating, guys, for him.

“I’m praying like crazy, I will be, that he can find his way back on the floor some point this year. It just doesn’t seem fair. This is not a fair game. I’m not saying that, but man, I would like so badly for him to be able to step on a court again. We’ll see how it goes.”

The Wildcats lost one of their warriors last night. But this team has a lot of warriors, the only team in the country with eight 1,000-point scorers on its roster.

“I mean, we just had a next-man-up mentality,” Oweh said. “Obviously it sucks to see Lamont go down.
He’s one of the toughest guys out there. We just had to keep on fighting. There was still much game left. A lot of guys answered the call and just stepped up.”

Fight Oweh did. Fight this entire Kentucky team did. This team’s ability to keep fighting despite the adversity on the injury front is one of many characteristics about this team that Big Blue Nation loves. Big Blue Nation always shows up in Nashville, but this time it feels different. It feels different because Mark Pope is embracing Kentucky playing in the SEC Tournament in Nashville.

“When you walk into this arena and you finish a game like that and the whole game you see all these
people, these Kentucky fans, it’s an arena full of Kentucky fans,” Pope said. “Most of these Kentucky fans probably have never been able to go watch a game at Rupp Arena because they can’t get in. They save and plan for a year to come here and do this.

“I know that sounds unique, and it is really unique. So there’s just this massive pull of our guys. This is our family,
we want to take care of them, we want to perform for them. We want this to be great and special for them.  This is real for us. This matters for us.”

That combined with Pope praying for Butler to be able to play is what makes this team special.

Third opportunity against Alabama

Next up for Kentucky is round three against Alabama on Friday night, the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament. Tipoff is scheduled for 9:30 E.T./8:30 C.T. on the SEC Network. Kentucky lost both games against Alabama in the regular season, but the Wildcats haven’t lost to the same team three times in the same season since 2013-2014 against the Florida Gators.

While Butler’s status is uncertain going into the game, two things are confidence boosters going into Friday night: This Kentucky team will leave everything out on the court, and it’s hard to beat a team three times in the same season.

“We’re a little beat up and a little shorthanded. All that’s fine,” Pope said. “That’s actually where you write the great stories. That’s why we’re all attracted to March, is because there are just these few teams that step up and do things that nobody thinks they can do, under major duress and all kinds of problems. If you don’t want to be part of that, don’t go to March.

“We are dying to be a part of that. We want it so bad. We’re going to go fight and we’re going to see what we can
do tomorrow.”

Now you can see why Big Blue Nation is fully embracing Mark Pope, when he says quotes like that. Pope also said on SEC Now- SEC Network’s postgame show- that to beat this Kentucky team you’re going to have to kill them.

This team is tough, resilient and playing together right now. Their resilience is what lifted them to a second win over Oklahoma in 15 days, the Second Round SEC Tournament more than living up to the anticipation.

This is why we love sports. This is why Big Blue Nation loves this Kentucky team.