On Saturday night, things were not looking good for the Kentucky basketball team. The Cats found themselves down by 18 points in the second half against No. 7 Gonzaga in a de facto road game for UK.

Then, things changed. Head coach Mark Pope went to a zone defense, slowing down a Gonzaga offensive attack that had scored 50 points in the first half. The Cats started to make plays on the offensive end as well. Ultimately, Kentucky would win by a single point in overtime.

What allowed the Cats to rally from a double-digit, second-half deficit? Ansley Almonor believes he knows why.

“We’re tough. We’re a really resilient group,” Almonor said. “Being down 16, 18 in the second half, most teams would just crumble and give up at that point but we’re a veteran team and we knew we were better and we just had to go out there and execute the game plan and that’s what we did.”

As for the switching of the defensive strategy, it was not something that came out of the blue. It was actually something the Cats had been working on for a while.

“We practice that a good amount,” Almonor said. “In situations like that, when the opposing offense has a good flow, we just throw something different at them to see how they react to that. The execution we wanted to do was confuse them a little bit, slow them down a little bit, mess up their flow and see how they reacted to it. They didn’t react that well, so I think it worked for sure.”

The Cats now turn their attention to Colgate, which comes to Rupp Arena on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2). The Raiders are 2-8 on the season, but Almonor has seen some good things from the Raiders on film.

“They try to shoot a lot of threes, they play pretty fast. They know how to guard, it’s going to be a good little challenge for us.”

Almonor knows that Kentucky’s goal is constant improvement, and that’s what the Cats will be looking for on Wednesday.

“Coach tries to preach to us about getting better every day,” Almonor said. “That was a big win for us, but each day, we’re just trying to get better. Today is another opportunity.”

The next opportunity to get better comes on Wednesday night, when a Kentucky team coming off a big win faces Colgate inside Rupp Arena.

Cats Mount Comeback, Defeat No. 7 Gonzaga

No. 4 Kentucky matched the largest halftime deficit overcome in program history, rallying from 16 down at the break, and 18 behind early in the second half, to defeat No. 7 Gonzaga in overtime, 90-89.

Andrew Carr, who led the Wildcats with 19 points on the night, and Jaxson Robinson, who finished with 18 of his own, took over in the second half and overtime for Kentucky, sparking the rally. The duo combined to shoot 12-14 from the field in the second half plus the extra session, scoring 28 points during that stretch. They also played a combined 16:11 minutes of game time with four fouls.

Trailing 56-39 with 18 minutes to go in the second half, Kentucky went on a 13-0 run over three and a half minutes to close to within four.

The Bulldogs kept their nose in front until Carr hit a game-tying jumper with just 1:01 left in regulation, sending the game to overtime tied at 79.

In the extra session, UK scored the first seven points to lead 86-79, before the Zags ripped off the next six. Carr and Robinson both hit field goals down the stretch to keep the Cats in front, but a 3-pointer from Gonzaga’s Nolan Hickman pulled GU within one at 90-89 with just five seconds remaining.

Carr was fouled, but missed both free throw attempts. However, the grad transfer got back on defense and was able to disrupt the Gonzaga fast break and prevent the Bulldogs from getting off a final attempt before the buzzer.

The Wildcats pulled off the improbable comeback despite starting point guard Lamont Butler missing the game with an injury and backup point guard Kerr Kriisa exiting in the second half.

Some additional notes from the win:

• Kentucky is 2-0 against AP top 10 opponents this season. It is the quickest (nine games) into a season that the Cats have two victories over AP top 10 opponents since 2014-15 (eight games)
• Mark Pope becomes just the second head coach in program history to win his first two games against AP top 10 opponents, joining Adolph Rupp
• UK is now 104-72 all-time in matchups involving two AP top 10 teams
• The Wildcats snapped Gonzaga’s streak of 175 games won when leading by 10 or more points at the half
• Kentucky was outrebounded 25-16 in the first half but ended up winning the battle on the boards, 43-42
• Win marked the first overtime victory for Kentucky since Nov. 20, 2023 vs. St. Joe’s

‘Til the Battle is Won on the Boards

Numbers can always be deceiving, but for the Wildcats the on-going battle on the boards has proved to be a key for UK’s early-season success.

UK ranks third in the nation, hauling in an average of 44.67 rebounds per game. Kentucky is second nationally in defensive rebounding (32.89 per game).

The Wildcats are outrebounding their opponents by 7.7 per game and have outrebounded all but one opponent.

But, rebounding was a pointed reason for double-digit halftime deficits against No. 6 Duke and No. 7 Gonzaga. In fact, UK was outrebounded by nine total boards (an average of 4.5 per game) in the first half of those games. Following halftime, UK outrebounded those opponents by seven (3.5 per half).

For the season, UK is logging 21.6 first-half boards and nudging the opponents by two, while generating 22.4 per game in the second half and bettering its opponent by 5.4 after the break.