#15 Cats come out on top in late night Bluegrass battle

By Lukas Witt (11 years old)

#15 Kentucky gets big play from key Cats in a 80-72 late night win over the Mississippi State Bulldogs in from of 20,000+ fan at Rupp. Nick Richards grabbed his 10^th double-double of the season last night dropping a career high 27 points 25 of those coming in the second half and 11 rebounds. In all of his previous games for the Cats before this season Richards had only one double-double, he has turned it up to another level and has 10 on the season. Immanuel Quickley finished with 21 points and went 14-14 from the free throw line. Nate Sestina who had been struggling lately finished with 6 points going 3-5 from the field and grabbed 3 rebounds in just 15 minutes of play. Then there was EJ Montgomery who we all have been waiting on to be that guy, well he was that guy against the Bulldogs. Montgomery showed fight and determination as he finished with 12 points, 8 rebounds and 3 steals, more important he was active on both ends of the floor creating for his teammates. The Cats went 31-36 from the free throw line with 86.1% and had just 8 turnovers. The story of the night was 3-pt shooting, we often hear Coach Cal say you can miss you just can’t miss them all, well they almost did, hitting just 1-10 a slim 10% from behind the arch. Kentucky visits border rival Tennessee on Saturday, looking to end a two-game slide against the Volunteers for a 1:00 tip and can been seen on CBS.