Kentucky basketball rolls again in final exhibition game. Cats beat Minnesota State by 31.

The final exhibition game of Kentucky basketball’s preseason schedule wasn’t as lopsided as the first. But it wasn’t close either.

Mark Pope’s Wildcats defeated Minnesota State Mankato — the reigning NCAA Division II champions — by a score of 98-67 on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, the team’s final tuneup before the 2024-25 regular season begins next week.

UK defeated Kentucky Wesleyan by 71 points six days earlier in Rupp, and the Cats led Minnesota State by as many as 40.

Jaxson Robinson led the way for the Wildcats on Tuesday, going 8-for-12 from 3-point range and scoring 24 points while tallying six rebounds and three assists. Robinson, who was Pope’s leading scorer at BYU last season, also led UK with 19 points in its first exhibition game.

Otega Oweh added 15 points, six assists and three steals. He missed only one of his eight shot attempts. Andrew Carr had 14 points — including four dunks in the second half — and Brandon Garrison scored 12 points.

Much of the first half was a sloppy affair for the Wildcats, who led Minnesota State just 22-20 with seven minutes left until halftime. UK committed five turnovers before the first TV timeout of the half — after turning it over only five times the entire game against Kentucky Wesleyan last week — and the Cats missed 11 of their first 13 attempts from 3-point range Tuesday night.

Then they found their rhythm.

Kentucky scored 18 straight points coming out of the under-8 TV timeout, a run that featured three 3-pointers from Robinson and one each from Lamont Butler and Trent Noah.

By halftime, the Cats led 43-23, and they took their first 30-point lead of the night on another 3-pointer from Robinson before the first TV timeout of the second half.

Kentucky finished the game with eight turnovers, committing just three over the final 32-plus minutes, with one of those coming on a shot-clock violation as they ran out the game clock at the end.

Pope stuck with the same lineup in UK’s second exhibition game, going with Butler, Robinson, Oweh, Carr and Amari Williams as his first five. Before the second TV timeout, Kerr Kriisa, Collin Chandler, Koby Brea, Ansley Almonor and Garrison had all entered the game, and Noah checked in as the 11th Wildcat following that timeout. Fellow freshman

Travis Perry did not play in the first half, entering the game for the first time with 6:18 remaining.

Kentucky shot 13-for-37 (35.1%) from 3-point range and had 28 assists on 37 total baskets.

Amari Williams injured

UK starting center Amari Williams left the game early in the first half after suffering an apparent knee injury. He did not return to the Kentucky bench for the rest of the half, but he did join his teammates on the court for second half warmups.

Williams did not play in the second half, though he was walking around on the court before the period began. The 7-footer limped off the floor unassisted with 16:32 remaining in the first half and clutched at his right knee on the UK sideline before being guided back to the team’s locker room.

“I think he’s doing fine,” Pope said after the game, adding that he was told X-rays came back “solid” and there would be more imaging work done Wednesday. The coach said he hoped Williams would be back “soon.”

Williams was a three-time conference defensive player of the year at Drexel over the past three seasons, and he’s expected to play an important role on both sides of the ball for the Cats this season. Brandon Garrison started the second half in his place.

Kerr Kriisa makes debut

Transfer point guard Kerr Kriisa made his UK basketball debut in Tuesday night’s game.

Kriisa — a standout point guard at West Virginia and Arizona over the past three seasons — missed the team’s Blue-White scrimmage in Memorial Coliseum on Oct. 18 with a hamstring injury, and he was also sidelined for the Wildcats’ first exhibition game against Kentucky Wesleyan last week.

Both Kriisa and coach Mark Pope have told the Herald-Leader over the past week and a half that the player’s absence from the lineup was simply a precaution, and he checked into Tuesday’s game with 15:26 left in the first half for his first game action with the Cats.

The 6-3 guard finished with three points, four rebounds, six assists and zero turnovers in 16 minutes.

Kriisa averaged 11.0 points and 4.7 assists per game while shooting 42.4% from 3-point range last season at West Virginia.

The Wildcats’ next game

The Mark Pope era will officially begin with the regular-season opener Monday night in Rupp Arena with Kentucky hosting Wright State at 7 p.m. to tip off the 2024-25 campaign. The game will be televised live on ESPNU.

The Raiders finished 18-14 overall with a 13-7 record in the Horizon League last season. Wright State has been picked to finish fifth in the 11-team conference, and Brandon Noel has been tabbed as the Horizon League’s preseason player of the year. The 6-foot-8 junior forward averaged 14.5 points and 8.0 rebounds for the Raiders last season.

Free UK basketball newsletter

The Herald-Leader launched a free UK men’s basketball newsletter — Beyond the Arc — earlier this month, and it will feature the latest news, analysis and inside information on the Wildcats throughout the 2024-25 season. You can sign up for the Beyond the Arc newsletter here.

Box score from Kentucky basketball’s 98-67 exhibition win over Minnesota State

Behind the mad scramble to get Lamont Butler, the ‘linchpin’ of this UK basketball team

For Kentucky’s coaches and Kerr Kriisa, this is a basketball marriage years in the making

UK basketball has two in-state freshmen. What to expect from Trent Noah and Travis Perry.

One practice battle is making this UK basketball team stronger. ‘Those guys are awesome.’

Former Kentucky basketball players on NBA rosters (2024-25 season)

What did game one of the Pope era reveal? ‘You just see the direction that this is going.’