No. 9 Kentucky turns focus to Valparaiso after stingy win in opener

No. 9 Kentucky will wrap up its season-opening two-game homestand against Valparaiso on Friday night in Lexington, Ky.

Kentucky is coming off a season-opening, 77-51 win over Nicholls on Tuesday night. After a lackluster first half, where the Wildcats scored just 28 points on 10-for-31 shooting, their offense surged for 49 points in the second half to pull away.

"I thought like we were tentative and tight," Kentucky head coach Mark Pope said. "We had a tough time catching balls in the game, and sometimes you are so excited about beginning this journey. This is our first step in this journey and we are so excited, and we have been building on this for a while now.

"And so, I think we are a little, you know, just lost in the weeds a little bit on the offensive side. We have challenges as a group offensively. We will be really good there, we just were not good in the first half."

Defense was not a problem for Kentucky, though. The 51 points the Wildcats allowed are the fewest in 37 games with Pope as their head coach. In addition, their 15 points allowed in the first half are the fewest since a 2019 NCAA Tournament game against Abilene Christian (13 points).

"That was something we hit on this week, and I felt like our team defensively was great," guard Collin Chandler said. "It's just something that no matter how the game's going, that's always something we can lean on is our effort defensively, making it hard on teams to score, and that's what kept us alive."

The Wildcats are beginning their season without two starters in Jaland Lowe and Jayden Quaintance.

Lowe tweaked his shoulder in the Wildcats' Blue-White scrimmage on Oct. 17. Quaintance is still working his way back from a torn ACL sustained last season when he was playing at Arizona State.

But a boost for the Wildcats is that second-year guard Trent Noah is fine after sustaining what looked to be a scary lower-body injury in the first half Tuesday night.

Noah was in visible pain after falling on the baseline and had to be helped off by two trainers, but he was deemed to be OK after going through drills during halftime.

"Trent is the toughest dude I know," Pope said. "We got to get him healthy because he's an important part of this team. One of the luxuries we have is we have guys that can go play and go compete. We have some depth that we didn't have last year. And you know, our guys were incredible last year. But you know, we should be able to overcome some of those issues this year and handle them a little better."

Valparaiso is coming off a thrilling, 66-63 season-opening win over Eastern Illinois on Tuesday.

Freshman forward JT Pettigrew converted an old-fashioned three-point play with 10 seconds remaining to give the Beacons a one-point lead.

Following an Eastern Illinois travel, freshman guard Rakim Chaney made two free throws to seal the three-point win.

"It's crazy, late in the game, I got three freshmen on the court and these freshmen were making plays," Valparaiso coach Roger Powell Jr. said. "This is a team that I think, with the youth and some of the experience we have, has a huge room for growth. We're going to get better each and every game."

The Beacons are looking to bounce back from a disappointing 15-19 season in 2024-25. They'll have opportunities to build a strong at-large resume with nonconference games against Kentucky, Marquette and Northwestern.

--Field Level Media