By Jamie H. Vaught
KySportsStyle.com Magazine
NASHVILLE -- Otega Oweh is now bad news for Oklahoma.
For the second time in a little over two weeks, Kentucky All-SEC junior scored a game-winning basket as he lead the No. 15 Wildcats to a thrilling 85-84 victory over Oklahoma, his former school, in the SEC Tournament Thursday night.
With his team trailing by one point with 5.6 seconds remaining, Oweh raced down the court and came up with a driving jumper with less than one second left.
It was a very remarkable comeback victory as the Wildcats were forced to play most of the contest without injured defensive specialist Lamont Butler, one of the nation's top point guards.
Kentucky, 22-10, now will have to face a team that has beaten the Wildcats twice this season. On Friday night in the SEC Tourney quarterfinals, UK will play fifth-ranked Alabama. The 9:30 p.m. ET showdown will be shown on SEC Network. The Crimson Tide swept the games in January (102-97 in Lexington) and last month (96-83 in Tuscaloosa).
Kentucky's Koby Brea opened the postgame press conference and said of the thrilling victory, "First of all, still in disbelief what just happened. Otega Oweh, special, special player. It's
unbelievable what he just did out there. Shoutout to our teammates. The young guys really came up, and they grew up today. They made some big-time plays down the stretch there that were super important. Amari (Williams), BG (Brandon Garrison), Lamont Butler, just everybody. Everybody made an impact today. Happy about the win."
On the last play, Oweh was asked if there was any doubt in his mind he was taking that final shot.
"I just wanted to get to the paint and then whatever happens happens," said Oweh, who finished with a team-high 27 points. "I kind of saw like a little gap to get a shot off. I shot it to try to make it. Kind of felt good."
Then Kentucky coach Mark Pope, grinning at Oweh, asked, "Did it kind of feel good?"
Oweh said, "It felt great."
And Pope smiled, "All of us would like to know exactly what that felt like."
Brea also had a good performance, pumping in 22 points, one shy of his career best set earlier this season against Florida. Andrew Carr added 11 points while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds. Trent Noah snatched six rebounds in only 14 minutes of action.
For the game, UK hit 51.7 percent of its field goals and outrebounded the Sooners 36-28.
With Kentucky coming off an emotional win over Oklahoma, the Wildcats will need to refocus when facing Alabama the next day (actually night).
"It's incredibly challenging," said Pope. "That's why it's March magic, right? It's March magic. If you can do it, then you do it, right? We get to be tested in an epic way. We lost twice to
Alabama. They're a top four or five team in the country. We're a little beat up and a little shorthanded. All that's fine.
"That's actually where you write the great stories. That's why we're all attracted to March, is because there are just these few teams that step up and do things that nobody thinks they can do, under major duress and all kinds of problems. If you don't want to be part of that, don't go to
March. We are dying to be a part of that. We want it so bad. We're going to go fight and we're going to see what we can do tomorrow."
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