FINAL: Cats Roll Little Rock 69-49 as Momcilovic Lights Up Rupp in the Exhibition Opener

Basketball is back at Rupp Arena, and the first look at Mark Pope's year-three Cats ended in a 69-49 win over Travis Ford's Little Rock Trojans on Friday night. It's an exhibition, so it doesn't count on either record, but it was the first time nine Wildcats played in the blue and white.

Our Take: the offense is still a work in progress, but the shooting and the length on defense are real, and that's a fun place to start.

Milan Momcilovic was the headliner. The Iowa State transfer, who led the nation in 3-point shooting last season, poured in a game-high 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting, hit 4 of 7 from deep and grabbed seven rebounds. His late pull-up three in transition put UK up 61-39 with 5:29 left.

Furman transfer Alex Wilkins added 11 and freshman Mason Williams had 10, plus three assists and three steals. Malachi Moreno owned the glass with 11 rebounds, six points and three assists in 26 minutes, and Zoom Diallo handed out a team-high five assists.

How it went: Kentucky took its first lead, 5-4, nearly five minutes in and never trailed again. The Cats led 30-19 at halftime after holding Little Rock to 19 first-half points. When the Trojans got within 12 with 10:40 to play, UK answered with an 8-0 run, with threes from Wilkins and a fast-break layup by Williams, to go up 53-33. The lead peaked at 22.

By the numbers: UK shot 44 percent from the field and 12 of 28 from three. Little Rock shot 31 percent and just 10 percent from deep. The thing to clean up: 19 turnovers against 12 assists, a lot of them against the full-court press Ford threw on in the second half.

Kam Williams (foot), Trent Noah (hamstring) and Jerone Morton (knee) did not play. Reece Potter got his first minutes as a Wildcat in the final 90 seconds.

Next up: Texas Tech comes to Rupp next Friday, Oct. 23, at 7 PM ET (5 PM MT) on SEC Network+. Then it's Central Florida on Oct. 28 in the final exhibition before the real opener against Manhattan on Nov. 3. GO CATS.

Sources: WKYT, LEX 18, Lexington Herald-Leader, KSR/On3, Kentucky Kernel, UK Athletics box score