Five things you need to know from No. 19 Kentucky’s 73-69 win over Michigan

Five things you need to know from the No. 19 Kentucky Wildcats’ 73-69 win over the Michigan Wolverines in NCAA men’s college basketball at O2 Arena in London, England:

1. Cason Wallace shows why he’s the key to the UK season. Having already taken a loss this season to Michigan State by failing to “close out” a game, Kentucky had seen Michigan cut a 66-58 deficit to 68-66 inside the final two minutes.

With the “oh no, here we go again” feeling in the air, Wallace took a pass from Sahvir Wheeler and buried a three-pointer from the left corner with 1:11 left in the game to put UK up 71-66. The shot gave the Wildcats just enough cushion to survive in a contest the Cats really needed to claim.

A 6-foot-4, 193-pound freshman from Dallas, Wallace made all four of his three-point attempts and finished with 14 points, eight rebounds, five assists, a steal and a block.

Of Kentucky’s perimeter players, Wallace has the most-well-rounded game and the highest talent ceiling. That makes him the UK perimeter player capable of pushing the Wildcats to the proverbial “next level.”

2. UK survives horrid foul shooting. Kentucky won in spite of going 10-of-20 from the foul line. The Cats missed four foul shots, including the front end of the one-and-one twice, in the final 39 seconds of the game.

The Kentucky guards were the primary culprits. Senior point guard Sahvir Wheeler went 2-of-6 on free throws, freshman Cason Wallace was 0-of-2 and redshirt senior CJ Fredrick was 0-of-1.

3. Marquee big-man showdown. The battle of star big men between Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe and Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson was, essentially, a draw.

The 6-foot-9, 260-pound Tshiebwe went for 13 points and 14 rebounds in spite of battling four trouble. It was the senior big man’s 32nd double-double in 40 career games for Kentucky.

Dickinson, a 7-1, 260-pound junior, had 23 points and nine boards, but made only 10 of 22 shots.

4. Kentucky long rifles? Before Sunday, the two players counted upon to be UK’s primary three-point marksmen, Antonio Reeves and CJ Fredrick, had struggled to makes shots from behind the arc against high-level competition.

In Kentucky’s losses to Michigan State and Gonzaga, Fredrick, the former Covington Catholic star and Iowa transfer, was a combined 2-of-12 on three-point tries; Reeves, the Chicago product and Illinois State transfer, was 3-of-10.

Against Michigan, Reeves made three of four treys en route to 11 points. However, the 6-5 senior turned the ball over three times.

Fredrick was 1-of-3 on three-point tries but the one he hit, off a feed from Jacob Toppin, was a big one. It came with 9:09 left in the game and pushed UK ahead 60-54.

5. Worldly Wildcats. With its victory over Michigan, Kentucky is now 4-0 in the John Calipari coaching era in games played in foreign countries.

UK won twice in 2009-10 in the Cancun Challenge in Mexico, beating Cleveland State 73-49 and Stanford 73-65 in overtime. In 2016-17, Kentucky whipped Arizona State 115-69 in the Atlantis Showcase on Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

Over all of Kentucky men’s hoops history, the only other games the Wildcats have played outside one of the 50 states came in 1998-99 when Tubby Smith’s Cats went 2-1 in the San Juan Shootout in Puerto Rico.

In San Juan, UK beat Colorado 64-52; lost to Pittsburgh 68-56; and beat No. 10 UCLA 66-62. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory.