Duke had Kentucky on the ropes. The Cats refused to break. ‘They just kept coming at us.’

There were so many moments in Kentucky’s eventual 77-72 victory over Duke on Tuesday night when it looked as if the game might just be slipping away from the Wildcats.

Each time that happened, Mark Pope’s team answered. And then the Blue Devils answered right back. So it went for much of the second half, the first marquee matchup of the Pope era seemingly headed toward his first defeat as Kentucky’s head coach.

But his Cats never stopped coming. And, finally, they broke through.

Kentucky — the 19th-ranked team in the country — jumped out to a 19-13 lead early in the first half, starting the game 5-for-5 from 3-point range until the shots went cold. By the time the Wildcats ended a skid of eight consecutive misses, No. 6 Duke led by six points. The Blue Devils’ advantage reached double digits before the halftime buzzer sounded on a 46-37 score.

After that initial flurry, nothing much went Kentucky’s way in the first half. The Cats were 11-for-30 from the field, forcing tough 2s and settling for contested 3s as they struggled to get good looks against Duke’s overwhelming combination of size, length and athleticism.

Kentucky committed seven turnovers in the first half. They forced Duke into only one.

For other teams, the breaking point might’ve been on the horizon. Not for these Cats.

“Coach always talks about just turning into each other, and the people that matter are the people in that locker room,” UK forward Andrew Carr said of the halftime scene. “And the closer we get, it’s harder and harder to break us.

“I felt like we did an unbelievable job of being resilient tonight.”

Pope called the first half a “frustrating” 20 minutes of basketball. Seven turnovers and 46 points surrendered? “That’s not characteristic of us,” he said.

On an eventful night, he was most proud of what happened next.

“You could see that the way they came out at the start of the second half — it was just sheer resolve and determination,” Pope said. “And there was a lot of ebb and flow. The game almost swung away from us there in that first eight minutes of the second half, and then the guys kind of reeled it in, and it was close for us.”

Kentucky scored the first five points out of the break to narrow Duke’s lead to 46-42. A “Go Big Blue!” chant broke out in Atlanta as the Cats prepared to initiate a baseline out of bounds play. Otega Oweh got the ball right underneath the basket, seemed primed to cut the Blue Devils’ lead to two points, and then freshman sensation Cooper Flagg flew in to block the shot.

Duke’s next possession ended with an emphatic dunk from fellow freshman phenom Khaman Maluach — initiating a “Let’s Go Duke!” chant from the other side of State Farm Arena — and the Blue Devils were up 54-45 a few minutes later.

The Wildcats could’ve wilted there. They didn’t.

“Our guys have been really focused on — when things are going tough — it is the psychology of us as human beings that we start to communicate less, we start to get lost in our own heads,” Pope said. “And literally and figuratively, you start to turn away from the huddle.

“Our guys are incredibly intentional about fighting that, and they’re like, ‘No, we’re going to turn back to each other.’”

Kentucky fought back again, Lamont Butler popping off for an and-one finish that narrowed it to 56-53. Thirty seconds later, Duke scored again. Thirty seconds after that, Flagg — 0-for-4 from 3-point range at that stage — finally found the bottom of the net on his fifth attempt from deep.

It was 61-53 when the clock ticked under 10 minutes in the second half. The deficit never got any more dire. Once again, the Cats slowly clawed their way back.

After a layup from Koby Brea, three buckets in less than two minutes from Brandon Garrison, and a 3-pointer from Kerr Kriisa, the Blue Devils’ lead was down to a single point.

Shortly after that, Carr took over.

The 6-foot-11 forward pump-faked Flagg — the projected No. 1 pick in next year’s NBA draft — on the perimeter and drove the lane, finishing strong with an and-one that tied it up at 67-all.

A minute later, Oweh came up with a steal, and Carr found him all alone at the bucket for an easy layup. Kentucky led 69-67 with 2:40 left, the first time since midway through the first half that the Cats were out in front.

“I thought our guys in the first half did a really good job, and they just kept coming at us,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “A lot of credit to (Pope), his team. They executed really well down the stretch. Really well. I think that’s where that experience for them really paid off. They shared it. They were patient. Give them all the credit in the world. All the credit.”

The Blue Devils pulled back ahead on a Flagg and-one, and then Carr answered right back with another of his own. This time, the UK forward (a fifth-year college player) dribbled the bigger, stronger Maluach (projected as a top-10 pick) all around the court before driving past the 7-2 teenager, getting him in the air, and finishing with a bucket and a foul.

“I think that’s just the flow of the game,” Carr said. “That happens with the way that we play. There’s a lot of reading and reacting, and we try to take advantage of how the defense is guarding us. There’s switching sometimes, and I just wanted to continue to try to be aggressive.”

Again, Flagg answered with a basket to tie it up at 72-all. And that was the score as the game reached its final minute. And then its final seconds.

Flagg, who is still a month away from turning 18 years old, tried to drive for the winning points. Carr stayed in front of him. When Flagg tried to spin away, he lost control of the ball, and Oweh pounced. The junior guard reached in and simply stole it right out of Flagg’s hands.

Oweh went the other way with it, drew a foul in transition, and nailed both free throws.

Coming out of the timeout that preceded that play, Pope had a quick word with him.

“He just told me to go make a play, be aggressive,” Oweh said. “He trusted me to make those types of plays. I trusted myself to make those plays. We shared a moment, but he just told me to go — to just be me.”

It still wasn’t over. Flagg had the ball again — this time down 74-72 — and he tried to dribble by UK fifth-year center Amari Williams, who guided the freshman to the corner, where Flagg fell down and lost control of the ball out of bounds.

Butler made the front end of the one-and-one to put Kentucky up three with 5.1 seconds left. He missed the second free throw, but Oweh jumped over Flagg to tip the offensive rebound to himself, drew a foul and iced the game.

None of the 10 players who played for the Wildcats on Tuesday night were recruited by UK before Pope arrived, plucking them out of the transfer portal and piecing them together over the course of the spring.

During the summer and fall, they bonded on and off the court. They also learned quickly what it meant to play for Kentucky, something that might’ve been a dream to some growing up but was a reality to none when it came time to pick a college.

It’s a reality to all of them now.

“You wear Kentucky on your chest, and you have to carry yourself a certain way,” Oweh said. “You know you’re not just playing for yourself. You’re playing for a whole nation. You’re playing for your brothers.

“It’s a dream to play for Kentucky.”

Several thousand of those that make up Big Blue Nation were cheering wildly as the Wildcats left the court victorious Tuesday night. Carr, Garrison and Williams — nearly 21 feet of height among them — each had their arms up in the air, a show of appreciation for those in the stands.

A few moments later, Pope walked off the court after his first major victory as Kentucky’s coach. The former UK player found his wife, Lee Anne, in the crowd for a long hug and a quick kiss. And then he bounced through the tunnel himself, pointing to the fans, pumping his fists and high-fiving anyone who could reach out far enough to return one.

After speaking to his players, Pope showed up for his postgame remarks. The coach — flanked by Oweh to his left and Carr to his right — was asked what that moment meant to him.

“I think one of the things that’s great about our team is this is not actually about us,” he said. “It’s not about me. If this gets about me, it gets too big. If it gets about Andrew Carr, it gets too big. …

“If Andrew has to carry around the burden of this being about him, it’s too big. If Otega has to carry around the burden of this being about him, it’s too big. And it’s actually not very rewarding. But when it can be about us, that’s when it’s magic. That’s the gospel. That’s life. This team has really adopted that. So getting to walk around and just acknowledge everybody, it’s like, ‘It’s us.’ It’s us. It’s these guys fighting on the floor. It’s all of BBN showing up. It’s a brilliant thing, and we get to be at the best place in the world to do it.”

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