LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Health continues to be Kentucky's toughest adversary, but the Wildcats are coming up with more answers as the season progresses.

Playing without grad senior wing Jaxson Robinson and having grad senior point guard Lamont Butler leave a tight game against No. 5 Tennessee with eight minutes remaining on Tuesday night at Rupp Arena, Kentucky got huge contributions from almost the entire roster as the No. 15 Wildcats recorded a hard-fought 75-64 win over the Volunteers.

Three unheralded players established new career-scoring highs against the nation's No. 1 defensive club. Senior forward Ansley Almonor scored 13 points, freshman wing Trent Noah tallied 11, and freshman guard Travis Perry chipped in with eight to help Kentucky (17-7, 6-5 SEC) pick up its seventh win against a Top 15 team this season.

"We just got a lot of dawgs," Almonor said. "We're out here playing against teams that are supposed to be better than us, but we know we've got a lot of dawgs, we've got guys who have that underdog mentality, and we'll fight every time.

"It's a next-man-up mentality. You have to step up and embrace your role."

The Wildcats' bench accounted for 26 of their 75 points on the night, doubling their Vol counterparts.

"We see guys growing and their games are expanding and growing and they are getting more comfortable with each other," Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said. "It's pretty great. It's really special.

"For us, it's going to be a team effort every single night. It takes every single one of our guys. Every single one of our guys is making key important plays. Every single guy on our roster that could play tonight made important plays. I like Kentucky being that way. I actually love it. It feels right to me. Maybe it is because of how we were when I played here. Maybe it's because of what I know. Maybe it's because it's how the state of Kentucky works, this community works. But I dig it, man. I think it's a good representation of where we are in the state."

In addition to the unexpected stars, Kentucky also got 13 points from junior guard Otega Oweh and 11 points from grad senior wing Koby Brea. The Cats shot 50% (26 of 52) from the field and went 12-for-24 from the arc against a Tennessee defense that entered the game No. 1 nationally in opponents' field goal percentage (36.2) and No. 3 in points allowed per game (59.3).

The Cats scored 78 against the Vols in the rivals' previous meeting, a five-point win on Jan. 28 in Knoxville despite playing without Butler, Kerr Kriisa, and Andrew Carr for all but two minutes as he was battling back spasms.

This time, Butler contributed on both ends before re-aggravating his left-shoulder injury with around eight minutes to go.

"He is really good defensively and he is their best downhill driver and a guy that has experience and been around," Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said of Butler. "I love the way he plays, I really do. I hate that he got hurt again. Those shoulders are hard to deal with, especially this time of year when you are at the point where you are getting hit a lot. I hate that for him and for them. He is a difference-maker. He is tough, hard-nosed, and can affect a game on both ends.”

Tennessee (20-5, 7-5 SEC) was held to 43% shooting and made just three of 18 attempts from beyond the arc. The Vols were unable to take advantage of a 33-26 rebounding advantage.

Zakai Zeigler led the Vols with 17 points, while Igor Milicic Jr. chipped in with 16. UT's leading scorer on the season, Chaz Lanier, was held to just 10 points on a 3-for-13 shooting night.

Despite their issues, the Vols only trailed 33-26 at the half and held a 60-58 lead with 4:50 remaining in the game. But UK closed with a 17-4 run to win by a deceptively large margin.

“Way, way, way too many defensive breakdowns on our part," Barnes said. "Give Kentucky credit, they did it, but we had way too many defensive breakdowns on things you cannot do there at the end of the game."

*****

In this "Rapid Recap" feature, we touch on some quick-hitters from the UK victory...

KEY MOMENT:

Trailing 60-58 with 4:50 remaining, Kentucky got a 3-pointer by Koby Brea, a short jumper from Amari Williams, and a pair of free throws by Trent Noah to regain the momentum. A Chaz Lanier dunk got the Vols back within three with 2:32 remaining and kept the suspense high, but the Cats countered with another 3-pointer by Brea and a lob from Brea to Otega Oweh for a dunk that made it 70-62 and sent the Rupp Arena crowd into a frenzy. Five straight free throws from Oweh and Andrew Carr capped the 17-4 run to close the game.

GAME BALL:

Trent Noah, Kentucky -- "The Mountain Mamba" came up big at the 3 spot after Jaxson Robinson missed the game with a wrist injury he re-aggravated on Saturday against South Carolina. Noah hit three 3-pointers in the first half to held stake the Cats to a nice halftime lead. He would later hit two huge free throws under pressure to extend a three-point UK lead to five with 2:41 remaining in the game. That gave him a new career scoring high of 11 points against the No. 1 defensive team in college basketball.

BY THE NUMBERS:

1st - Time two native Kentuckians (Trent Noah and Travis Perry) each scored eight points or more in a game against Tennessee since Dominique Hawkins and Derek Willis on Feb. 14, 2017.

5th - Win by the Wildcats against a team ranked in the Top 10 this season, the most ever by a UK team. The Cats also have seven wins against the Top 15.

14 of 63 - Tennessee's 3-point shooting against UK this season, 22%

24 - Straight games in double-figure scoring for Otega Oweh, each game he’s played as a Wildcat.

163-78 - Kentucky's lead in the all-time series with Tennessee, including three straight wins over the Vols and five of the last six. UK leads 95-20 in games played in Lexington.

20,076 - Attendance at Rupp Arena.

QUOTABLE:

"It's amazing, definitely one of the most fun games on the schedule. There's nothing like it growing up, watching them go down in my living room, and then crying when they lose and so happy when they win. Being able to be a part of it is so cool." -- UK freshman guard Trent Noah on being part of the UK-UT rivalry after growing up in southeastern Kentucky.

UP NEXT:

Kentucky returns to action on Saturday at Texas for an 8 p.m. ET tipoff on ESPN. It will mark UK's first game ever against Texas played in Austin. The other two meetings have come in Maui and Lexington. The Longhorns (15-10, 4-8 SEC) lost 103-80 on Tuesday at home against No. 2 Alabama.