In a game like the one Kentucky won on Friday in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament, everyone will remember the miraculously incredible three-point shot from Otega Oweh that sent the game into overtime. Kentucky’s 89-84 overtime win on Friday was the culmination of a game that featured 12 ties and 20 lead changes.
In the final 24 seconds, Oweh also made a spinning layup to tie the game at 70, Santa Clara’s Allen Graves hit a go-ahead three to put the Broncos up 73-70, then Oweh, as Spero Dedes
said on the CBS broadcast, etched his name into March Madness lore.
That sequence, especially Oweh’s incredible shot, is what everybody will remember. But games like this also contain so many small plays that helped decide the outcome. This game between Kentucky and Santa Clara is no different.
There are numerous examples of smaller-scale plays that may have been overlooked at the time, but after watching the game a second time, these plays are what led to Kentucky pulling out the thrilling win.
Take the first possession of the game for Kentucky. Even though they missed three shots on the possession, they got three offensive rebounds. Two of those offensive rebounds were by Malachi Moreno, who made the fourth shot to get Kentucky on the board first.
Moreno only scored three points on Friday, but he had six rebounds, including three on the offensive glass. Even though he looked a little overwhelmed on the NCAA Tournament stage, Moreno still made enough good plays to help Kentucky come away with the win.
Denzel Aberdeen made two three-pointers in the first half, and he finished with 16 points and four three-pointers. He won’t get enough credit for his performance on Friday, but he should. When Kentucky was struggling offensively, Aberdeen was there to bail them out. He made two three-pointers in both the first and second halves.
Aberdeen’s performance on Friday is a testament to his Senior leadership, something that’s been on display all season for the Cats. He’s been there before, playing on a national championship team last year at Florida. Now, he’s bringing that championship DNA to Kentucky.
How many good plays does Mouhamed Dioubate make for this team? First off, thank you, Jake Ensminger, for leaving him completely wide open and daring him to shoot a three-pointer late in the first half. Dioubate willed himself to the rim over and over again, scoring 17 points on 6-8 from the field and going 4-4 from the free-throw line. He just keeps making so many tough plays for this team, getting to the rim and finishing tough shots.
Friday, Dioubate kept playing hard the entire game, relentlessly attacking the rim. Keep in mind, Dioubate has played on a Final Four team and an Elite Eight team at Alabama. He knows what playing in March is like. Also worth noting, Ramadan ended this week. Imagine what Dioubate is going to be able to do on a normal eating and drinking schedule during the day.
Collin Chandler didn’t have a great day shooting. But he made up for it on the defensive end. It was his steal and dunk that tied the game 35-35 early in the second half, Chandler’s second steal of the game. He had another one in the first half. showing his hustle on the defensive end. Even though the shots weren’t falling, Chandler played 42 minutes and was +6 on the floor. More importantly, he was spectacular on the defensive end.
Speaking of making small plays, that’s what Andrija Jelavic did on Friday. He didn’t score at all, but he pulled down some incredibly tough rebounds in the second half. Jelavic finished with seven rebounds on Friday. It was his offensive rebound that led to an Oweh three-pointer to give Kentucky a 38-37 lead early in the second half. Then, he had an assist on Chandler’s only three-pointer to extend Kentucky’s lead to 41-37. Finishing with just one shot taken the entire game, Jelavic had seven rebounds and three assists and was +6 on the floor.
Kam Williams played nine minutes and took one shot. He made it from three-point range off a missed Oweh free throw. Oweh got the rebound off the miss, passed it back to Williams on the right wing, who swished the three-pointer to give Kentucky a 63-62 lead.
Before that, Oweh had an incredible and-one with 7:26 remaining that gave Kentucky a 60-59 lead. Oweh got the rebound off a tip and raced to the basket for an off-balanced and-one.
Brandon Garrison picked up his fourth foul with 8:17 remaining. He had three blocks after that, saving Kentucky when they desperately needed defensive plays. It just speaks to his toughness and his heart, keeping his head in the game when he could have fouled out at any minute. He had six of Kentucky’s 11 total blocks. Garrison was the leader of an incredibly active Kentucky defense on Friday night.
Again, everyone remembers the sequence at the end of regulation. How about the possession before? Allen Graves missed a wide-open layup for Santa Clara, and then there was a scrum for the ball. Oweh got possession just long enough for Brandon Garrison to call a timeout. It granted Kentucky possession. That’s just all five guys being on the same page and laying it all out on the court with the game and season on the line.
On the first possession of overtime, Kentucky duplicated what they did at the start of the game by attacking the offensive glass. Two offensive rebounds later, Oweh got a floater to go. The tone had been set, and Kentucky put the game away at the free-throw line and in transition.
The sequence at the end of regulation and the back-and-forth nature of this game will be long remembered in Kentucky lore. But there were so many small plays that enabled Kentucky to pull out an incredible win and ignite the possibility of a return trip to the Sweet 16. It will take an incredible effort on Sunday against a really good Iowa State team, but if this Kentucky team plays like it did on Friday, anything can happen.
This is March. If you’re scared, go to church.
