Kentucky falls to unranked Clemson in ACC-SEC Challenge action

Kentucky was off to a massive start in the Mark Pope era this season. Unfortunately, the Wildcats took their first loss of the season in an impressive performance from unranked Clemson.

During Tuesday’s ACC-SEC Challenge action, the unranked Tigers built a 37-30 lead at halftime. Clemson would not pull away in the second half, but the team would get the key plays down the stretch to hold on.

After watching a 7-point lead dwindle to 61-58 with 5 minutes to play, the Tigers would get back-to-back buckets from Chauncey Wiggins and Jaeden Zackery, including an and-1 from Zackery to punctuate a quick 5-0 run.

Inside the final 2 minutes, Chase Hunter would all 4 free-throw attempts to thwart any hopes of a comeback attempt from the Wildcats. Clemson secured the 70-66 win, giving the Tigers a 4th straight victory against a top-5 opponent.

In the process, the Tigers became the first team since the AP Poll expanded in 1989-90 to win 4 straight against top-5 teams as an unranked opponent:

Last 4 @ClemsonMBB games vs. AP Top 5:

unranked Clemson def. #3 Duke
unranked Clemson def. #5 Louisville
unranked Clemson def. #3 UNC
unranked Clemson def. #4 UK

Since the poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989-90, nobody else has won 4 straight vs. AP Top 5 foes all while unranked.

— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) December 4, 2024

Zackery finished with a team-high 13 points as Clemson received double-digit scoring efforts from 4 different Tigers. Every starter for Clemson scored at least 9 points, and 7 different players scored 6+ points for the Tigers.

Kentucky’s Otega Oweh led the Wildcats with 17 points while Lamont Butler added 16 points and 5 assists. Bench points proved to be a key in this one with Clemson outscoring the Wildcats 15-to-7 in scoring off the bench.

The loss drops Kentucky to 7-1 on the young season, but it is still a strong start to Pope’s tenure. The Wildcats have a win over Duke in the early-season schedule and get another chance to secure a prominent win against Gonzaga on Saturday.

Clemson, meanwhile, is unranked but could be breaking through in the near future. The Tigers are 8-1 with their lone loss coming on a trip to Boise State.

Paul Harvey

Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.