MILWAUKEE, Wis. (ABC36 NEWS NOW)- Kentucky Head Coach Mark Pope wins his first ever NCAA Tournament game and Kentucky’s first since 2022 in a 76-57 dispatch of Troy on Friday in Milwaukee. The Cats spent the majority of the game leading the Trojans and will move onto the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday. Otega Oweh had a team-high 20 points and six assists and Amari Williams had a team pacing 13 rebounds. “(Coach Pope’s first NCAA Tournament win) is important. He is a very special individual,” said Brandon Garrison. “He trusted us three to bring us on the team this year. When we first got there, all the talks me and him had, it was just special get being him his first tournament win.” How it Happened Kentucky was up at halftime, 35-27, thanks to double digit contributions from Andrew Carr and Oweh. With 20 minutes played, point guard Lamont Butler hadn’t scored a point or provided an assist though. Still, the Cats were shooting 50% from the field and 30% from three-point range. UK was clean moving the ball up to that point with five turnovers resulting in three points for the Trojans, all of them steals. In the second stanza, UK went on an 16-0 run with Collin Chandler and Garrison being the spark plugs for the Cats. Butler got on the stat sheet for the first time with just over 11 minutes left in the game with an assist to Garrison, who along with his fellow big men, Williams and Carr, accounted for 31 points. Pope’s squad then cushioned its lead to as much as 25 in the dying moments on the way to the blowout win. The Cats and the Keys Kentucky did well shooting from deep, on the glass and limiting turnovers. After shooting poorly from distance in the first half, Kentucky finished the game shooting 10/26 on threes. They played better in the paint, scoring 34 to Troy’s 26. UK and Troy were close in the rebounding game all night and the Cats edged the Trojans 39-38 on the boards. Every Kentucky turnover was a Troy steal with Scott Cross’ side going 10 for 10 in that category. But, it was Pope’s team who leveraged the turnover battle scoring 19 off of 11. “Today was a great battle,” said Chandler. “We prepared very well for this team. They came out and did what we thought they were going to do. I thought we did a good job in the first half of containing them on the offensive glass. The second half, it got away from us a bit, but we responded very well as a team.” What’s Next UK will face 6 Illinois on Sunday, March 23. Game times are TBA. The winner of the game will move onto Indianapolis, Indiana to play in the Sweet Sixteen. Categories: Featured, More Sports, Solid Blue, Sports Tags: Kentucky, Mark Pope, Milwaukee, NCAA Tournament, Troy, Wildcats ...read more read less