Kentucky embraces fight, defeats Arkansas 85-77 in big road victory

The Kentucky Wildcats were once again facing a huge opportunity on the road and after dropping their game last time out against Vandy in embarrassing fashion, fans were hoping that their team would get back on track with a good showing on the road facing John Calipari and the #15 Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville. BBN got their wish, as their Wildcats got a much-needed road victory over the Razorbacks all while embracing a physical matchup, leaving with an 85-77 win while handing Arkansas their first home loss since Feb. 8, 2025.

Kentucky got out to their best start on the road all season, as a 9-2 run early helped begin to open up their lead with the help of attack aggressively on the glass and getting to the rim against a rare weakness of Arkansas, which has been their two-point defense. The Wildcats went up as much as 13 in the first half, but maintained and went on to have their first halftime lead on the road this season, leading the Razorbacks by seven at half. As for the second half, Arkansas continued to stay with Kentucky. Believe it or not, though, Kentucky had three technical fouls in the span of 30 seconds, which gave Arkansas their first lead of the game with 14:07 left. From there, it remained very chippy, as the Razorbacks went on a 10-2 run in the span of those fouls to take a four-point lead with 11:59 left. It was a big swing from Kentucky being up nine at the beginning of the final half and a big thanks would be to Darius Acuff, who had nine of Arkansas' first 11 points in the half. Once Kentucky took the lead back with 9:31 left, they never let it go.

The Wildcats really took advantage of the chippiness, getting to the basket at will and efficiently. With so many fouls called, there was only one thing Kentucky needed to do and that's embrace it. They did that, getting to the line and crashing the glass, as a scoring drought late in the half helped Kentucky pull away with the win. Free throws were massive in this game with all of the fouls. Arkansas had 18 fouls in the second half and Kentucky went 16-25 from the line to close things out. They also won the rebounding battle 35-26 in a game where every board was huge, especially on offense.

This was a game where Kentucky fans wanted to see some fight from their team and they finally showed it on the road from the opening tip for the first time this season. It was very encouraging to see and a game that is such a huge opportunity for Mark Pope's Kentucky basketball squad to get themselves on track after their blowout loss to Vandy. An absolutely massive win and is now their biggest of the season so far.