In our regular postgame feature, the Cats Illustrated staff offers its first impressions from Kentucky's 78-64 win over Vanderbilt on Tuesday night at Memorial Gym in Nashville. The Cats rallied from a 14-point deficit in the first half to come back with a dominant second-half performance.
JUSTIN ROWLAND:
Most importantly, I thought tonight was a big step back in the right direction for Ashton Hagans. He's been struggling so much lately and tonight he was the best of what we've seen from him. Disruptive, a great distributor, controlling the tempo, making everyone better. If he can do this on a more consistent basis it makes all the difference. Kentucky is a better team when they're playing fast like this. This backcourt needs the freedom to get out and run. Vanderbilt is better right now than their season record so this was a solid road win. It would have been a Quadrant 3 loss so avoiding that was obviously big.
TRAVIS GRAF:
This team is very dangerous whenever they’re able to push the tempo. After a sluggish start, Kentucky absolutely dominated in the second half, scoring 51 points and outscoring Vanderbilt by 23. Ashton Hagans had a great bounce-back game, even flirting with a triple-double. Kentucky’s at their best when he’s at his best. Tyrese Maxey and Immanuel Quickley were big for the Cats as well. Nick Richards and EJ Montgomery combined for 18 points and 16 rebounds. I’m sure that fans will take that rebounding effort at any time. Kentucky realized in the second half that they were better than Vanderbilt, rather than playing to the level of competition. The next step is for Kentucky to do that for a full 40 minutes.
JEFF DRUMMOND:
It was the classic tale of two halves. The first half looked like Vanderbilt was poised to conjure some of that old "Memorial Magic." The Commodores were raining 3s, players were surpassing their season average in one half, and the crowd was sensing it could be another big upset for the home team, which knocked off SEC leader LSU last week. This would have been another "bad loss" on the UK resume if something didn't change. Fortunately, Kentucky emerged from the locker room as a different team in the second half. The Cats dropped the hammer on the Dores with a 24-4 run to take control. Tempo seemed to be the big key. Once UK's guards started playing "downhill," the Cats took off. The trio of Ashton Hagans (11), Tyrese Maxey (25), and Immanuel Quickley (18) combined for 54 of UK's 78 points.
