Conference road games are always tough. And this game was a tale of two halves for this Kentucky Wildcats basketball team.
Kentucky entered Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks on Wednesday night. Despite the Gamecocks’ winless conference record, one must assume that a Frank Martin coached team will play hard. South Carolina pulled out an 81-78 victory at the buzzer, breaking the hearts of UK fans.
At the outset, it seemed John Calipari prepared his team to play a complete game in a road environment. However, second-half mistakes in combination with South Carolina going full Katniss Everdeen – catching absolute fire – cost Kentucky. In the end, multiple double-digit leads were squandered in this one and the Cats were not prepared to win, and win efficiently.
There were several takeaways from this contest that are interesting, both positive and negative, as the Cats now look ahead to Saturday’s contest against a red-hot Arkansas team.