Second half propels UK to 98-74 win

Aug. 15—Kentucky took its punches during the first half Sunday, but the Wildcats roared back in the second half to capture a 98-74 victory against the Bahamas National Select Team in the fourth and final contest of their preseason trip at the Grand Mar Ballroom in Nassau, Bahamas.

UK, which went 4-0 on the trip, trailed by as many as eight points before an 11-0 run late in the first half gave the Cats a 41-40 edge at intermission.

Consecutive 3-pointers by Antonio Reeves pushed UK to a 70-59 advantage with 11:09 remaining, and the Cats steadily pulled away from there.

According to UK assistant coach Chin Coleman, the first-half competition was a positive thing for the Cats.

"We needed a little friction," he said. "Friction creates traction. Us as a staff, we were happy at the fact that these guys came out here and kind of fought us back a little bit, to see what we're made of. Do we have any pushback? Are we resilient enough to fight out a win and get down but not out and able to come to back after that and have a good game?

"I think we got what we needed to get out of this. Our team connected a little bit. We had multiple guys who had moments here."

Reeves finished with a game-high 22 points, making half of his 14 shot attempts from the floor and 4-of-9 from 3-point range.

Coleman credited Reeves for helping change the flow of the game with his outside shooting midway through the second half.

"We call that spurtability," he said. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, and you've got to have a short memory to be a knockdown shooter. I think he has that ability to have a short memory. If you miss one, you miss it, it's on to the next one. ... He gave us that separation that we needed."

Sahvir Wheeler posted 21 points and four assists for UK, Jacob Toppin added 20 points and five rebounds, and Oscar Tshiebwe collected 11 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Cason Wallace paced UK with five assists and four steals.

UK shot 50% from the field, including 7-of-23 from beyond the arc (30.4%), and converted 21-of-25 foul shots (84%) with 13 turnovers.