INDIANAPOLIS, IN (ABC 36 NEWS NOW) – Mark Pope’s inaugural season with Kentucky came to a close on Friday night as the cats fell to Tennessee in the Sweet 16, 75-68. Unfortunately, this one was never really close. Kentucky only led for 32 seconds the entire game. The cats got off to a slow st art. After the first ten minutes, Kentucky was already down by ten points. Then with 3:04 left in the first, Kentucky was down 19. Despite outscoring Tennessee 37-35 in the second half, it wasn’t enough to dig out of the hole. The cats would try to get going offensively, but struggle to get a defensive stop. Tennessee was the more physical team on Friday night, allowing rebounding to become the deciding factor. The cats were outrebounded 14-7 on the offensive glass, giving the vols had 19 second chance points. However, this was a group that Mark Pope built from scratch just last year, and they brought Kentucky to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2019. The cats finished 24-12 overall and 10-8 in the SEC.     Categories: Featured, Solid Blue, Sports ...read more read less