Kentucky men’s basketball moves to 2-0 with win over Bucknell

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW)- The Mark Pope era is off to a 2-0 start after Kentucky bested Bucknell 100-72 at home on Saturday.

Pope is 4-0 including exhibition games and Kentucky has scored at least 100 points for two games in a row.

Statistics Splash

Kerr Kriisa and Koby Brea were the stars of the Wildcat’s offense.

Kriisa provided no look passes that turned into assists all game. He had a team leading 12 assists.

“I don’t really play for my stats. I just got to thank my teammates. They make the shots that I pass and I don’t have much to add,” said Kriisa.

Brea continued to shine off of the bench with a team high 20 points.

Defensively, Kentucky is lucky to have the physicality of Amari Williams, who led the way on the glass with 14 rebounds.

Rebound Hounds

The 57 rebounds grabbed by the Wildcats are no coincidence. Pope’s sticking point in practice has been to improve in that regard ever since the first game of the season versus Kentucky Wesleyan.

UK bossed the offensive glass ending the game with 22 offensive boards to the Bison’s 12.

“We have been talking about (rebounding) all week and after the last three games. We haven’t been doing what we should be doing on the board. So that has been an emphasis in practice and even before the game today we talked about it. That was something we wanted to go out there and dominate on today and we did,” said forward Ansley Almonor.

Duking it Out

Kentucky takes its 2-0 standing into a matchup with fellow blue blood, Duke University, in Atlanta on Tuesday at 9 p.m.

This will be the Cats’ first ranked matchup of the season. UK is 23rd in the nation while Duke is seventh.

Head Coach John Scheyer’s team is 2-0 after wins versus Maine and Army.

Pope is optimistic that his team can continue to improve with the focus they’ve had solving issues so far this season.

“We are playing good basketball right now.  We have a chance to grow into a great team.  Now we have to earn it and we have to work on it and we got to get better every day,” said Pope. “I have high hopes because our guys, we want to take some focus and run with it.”