On the very first possession of Saturday’s game, Malachi Moreno battled for position on the block, grabbed Collin Chandler‘s missed three-pointer (a rarity for the sophomore guard, who finished 6-8 from deep) over two Vanderbilt defenders, and put in an easy left-handed hook shot to give Kentucky an early 2-0 lead.
It looked like a routine offensive rebound for the seven-foot freshman, but it was a tone-setting play right off the bat. The last time these two teams met in Nashville over a month ago, Moreno struggled with the Commodores’ physicality. That was anything but the case in Kentucky’s 91-77 revenge win in Lexington.
“This Malachi Moreno is really special,” Head coach Mark Pope told Tom Leach on postgame radio. “He’s Kentucky born and raised, and every time there’s been a challenge as a young freshman big — which is really hard to do — every time there’s been a challenge where he hasn’t felt good about his performance, and he’s had a chance to go respond, he’s responded.
“All week long he was so physical in practice, he was so physical in every single rep, his intensity level picked up. And then we got to see it happen today, and that’s how he responds when things don’t go right like they didn’t down in Nashville.”
In the first matchup against Vanderbilt on Jan. 27, Moreno finished with four points (1-2 FG) and eight rebounds in 26 minutes, dealing with foul trouble along the way. Kentucky got rocked in a 25-point loss. During the rematch, he posted 11 points (4-5 FG), six rebounds, and five assists, picking up just one foul in his 27 minutes. It marked the seventh game this season he’s led UK in assists.
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But it was how Moreno scored his 11 points that showcased the differences from game one to game two against Vandy. It started with the offensive rebound putback less than 30 seconds into the contest. His second bucket came with 5:51 to go in the first half and produced a similar result. He caught a pass just outside of the paint, took a few hard dribbles, put his shoulder into the defender, and went up for a short right-handed hook shot. He was fouled while driving his way to the rim on the next offensive possession.
“I appreciate the trust that my teammates and my coaches give me,” Moreno said. “I just gotta make a play with the ball.”
That bully-ball style of play carried over into the second half. Before the first media timeout, Moreno again sealed his defender not far from the rim, caught an easy pass, then lowered his shoulder into his defender for two more free throws. A few minutes later, he once again scored on a physical post-up play. He repeated a similar bucket one more time with about five minutes to go.
Nothing about Moreno’s performance came easy, but he sure made it look that way in a game that felt personal to him.