LEXINGTON — Tennessee was supposed to be the visiting team Saturday night at Rupp Arena. But Kentucky made its border rival feel at home when the Volunteers had the ball.

Time and again, too many times to count, Tennessee players had nary a defender in their line of sight, whether they were launching shots from deep or strolling to the basket for uncontested layups.

Rarely defending the player with the ball in his hands, not surprisingly, was not a winning formula for the No. 8 Wildcats, who fell to the No. 5 Volunteers by 11 points, 103-92.

"You can't let this (Tennessee) team get to the elbows," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "So we've got to be a little more sound defensively in what we're doing. And we're going to have to be a collective defensive team.

"I keep saying it: If one guy stops playing, it's going to hurt this group. But when we do it together, we can hold our own."

The Wildcats (15-6, 5-4 SEC) haven't held their ground as much as they'd like this season — particularly on their home court.

Saturday marked Kentucky’s second consecutive setback at Rupp; UK lost in overtime, 94-91, to Florida on Wednesday. It’s the first time since the ill-fated 2020-21 campaign — when the Wildcats went 9-16 overall (their first single-digit-win season since 1927) — that Calipari’s team dropped back-to-back home games. And it did so on two occasions in 2020-21.

The 2023-24 team, on paper, is far better than the squad the Wildcats trotted out three seasons ago.

Just not defensively.

Kentucky entered Saturday allowing 77.2 points per game, a figure that ranked outside the top 300 nationally and 13th in the 14-team SEC. It doubled as the worst average, by far, of Calipari’s 15 seasons as UK’s coach.

Saturday was more of the same.

The Volunteers (16-5, 6-2) surpassed 77 points with more than seven minutes remaining. They became the 10th opponent in 21 games to reach the 80-point mark versus the Wildcats. And the fourth to eclipse 90 (Georgia, Texas A&M and Florida), including the third foe in as many outings at Rupp.

But Saturday's performance by the Volunteers stands above all others this season. And almost above all others in any season.

Kentucky hadn't allowed an SEC opponent to cross the century mark in points at Rupp in more than 30 years. (Arkansas scored 105 on Jan. 25, 1992.)

What's more, it's only the fourth time (in 741 games) in the history of Rupp Arena — its first season as UK's home venue was the 1976-77 campaign — a foe put 100 points on the board.

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes shrugged off the accomplishment, four days after his team managed only 59 points in a four-point home loss to South Carolina.

"We play fast, so I knew it was gonna be a high-possession game. I knew that, there was no question," Barnes said. "But it goes back to — I've said it many times that each game takes on its own personality. ... But we knew coming in here, it'd be up and down, a lot of shots."

What made Tennessee's point tally all the more vexing for the hosts was that they held Dalton Knecht in check — relatively speaking. The SEC’s leading scorer (20.1 points per game at the outset of Saturday), Knecht had 16 points on 5-of-14 shooting, making only one of his five 3-point attempts. (He made his presence felt at the free-throw line, where he went 5 for 5.) Still, it was the lowest point total for one of the leading contenders for the SEC Player of the Year since Jan. 2, when he finished with 15 in a win over Norfolk State.

Tennessee didn’t need Knecht to connect from the field all that often Saturday because he had plenty of help from his friends.

Four other Vols (Zakai Zeigler, Josiah-Jordan James, Jonas Aidoo and Santiago Vescovi) scored in double figures. Zeigler and James tied for the team high with 26 points apiece. Zeigler sank 8 of 11 shots and 7 of 10 free-throw attempts, while James was 9 for 18 overall (and 4 of 9 on 3s). Aidoo and Vescovi each contributed 11 points.

"That was the game plan: to try and make the other guys (other than Knecht) be a factor in the game," said Kentucky guard Adou Thiero, who had nine points (7 for 8 at the free-throw line), six rebounds and three assists, "and credit to them, they handled it well."

Well enough to offset the excellence of Kentucky freshman Rob Dillingham, who posted Saturday’s top point total: 35 off the bench, converting 70% (14 for 20) of his shots, including 6 of 8 beyond the 3-point arc. As good as he was, recording the most points by a UK player since teammate Antonio Reeves scored 37 last season at Arkansas, Dillingham's thoughts weren't about his game. Or even the offense.

It was the team's recurring mistakes defensively.

"We go over their inbound (plays) every time, so we shouldn't mess up on their inbounds," he said. "But us not being all the way there, we mess up on the inbounds, anyway — even though we went over it six times."

Thiero also said that more than halfway through the season, the Wildcats' youth — the roster is comprised of two seniors, two sophomores and eight freshmen — isn't a valid excuse any longer.

"We know we've gotta get better at it," he said, referring to the defense. "This is college. We're not all the same age, but we all still do the same thing. So we've just got to figure it out, keep fighting.

"And we're gonna break through eventually."

How quickly that advancement arrives, Dillingham admitted, is a matter of each player's mindset. Point blank: "I just feel like we didn't fight as hard as we could" Saturday, he said.

Thus, the Wildcats deserved the result they received.

"It's really an effort," he said. "If you want to, you're gonna remember what (we're supposed to) do."

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball and John Calipari lose to Tennessee at Rupp Arena