Kentucky, like a fine thoroughbred, pulls away down the stretch to keep their record perfect at 10-0.

Watching the Wildcat’s this year, you can draw a comparison to a gifted race horse. Consider them the basketball version of “Mine That Bird”, as the Cats are frequently slow out of the gate but make furious charges down the stretch to pull out the victory. Today, Kentucky endured a furious Indiana start, and stayed in the game due to the hot shooting of Eric Bledsoe, the leadership and poise of Patrick Patterson, and the usual sprinkling of John Wall magic. In the second half, UK methodically built it’s lead and won pulling away down the stretch over Tom Creans game but overmatched Hoosiers.

As feared, Indiana got off to a hot start behind 5 early points from their freshman, Maurice Creek, to get off to a 10-4 lead just 2:00 into a game and that had the raucous Assembly Hall crowd rocking. Indiana pushed the lead up to 17-9 and then the smooth running thoroughbred known as Kentucky woke up and went on a quick 6-0 run that ended any thoughts of a Hoosier blowout and brought the Cats to within two at 17-15. Eric Bledsoe then got hot and had two 3-pointers in less than a minute and UK silenced the Assembly Hall crowd and UK gained a 24-21 lead.

Then flexing their legs, Darius Miller and John Wall both hit treys that led to UK pulling away from the Hoosiers at 36-27 and threatening to end this game before the half. Indiana, for their credit, refused to fold and played their best half of the season and matched UK fastbreak basket for fastbreak basket. The game resembled more of a NBA game at times and the Hoosiers fought themselves back into the game and the half ended with a 42-41 UK lead. You had to feel good about UK having the lead since Indiana shot 64.3% in the first half.

The Hoosiers came out scrappy in the second half and matched UK. The Hoosiers scored 4 straight points to give IU a 48-47 lead with 17:30 in the game. Seeing the homestretch looming and not liking what he saw, John Calipari called a timeout to rally his Cats. And it worked.

A John Wall dunk. A Bledsoe 3. Patterson with a layup. Dodson with a “plus one” 3 point play. Bledsoe with another 3 pointer. A Cousins Plus one 3 point play. A Bledsoe dunk. The 18-0 run made it UK 65-48 in the span of about 5:30. It could have been much worse for the Hoosiers as UK actually missed 5 shots in a row during that streak.

The key to this streak was the amazing job UK did on the boards. For the game, UK finished with a 44-22 rebounding advantage and even more impressive was the second chance points stat which UK led 30-6. After the streak, the game was for all intent and purposes over. Indiana played well the rest of the game, and actually got the margin down to 11, but UK would push the score back up to 18 or 19 and then Indiana would make another mini run.

Like I said, there was not a lot of drama after the streak, but a major mystery was resolved when DeAndre Liggins made a cameo appearance for the final minute of the game, which was his first action since the Blue/White game. Eric Bledsoe led UK with 23 points on 4-5 3-point shooting and 8-10 overall. Patrick Patterson had a double double with 19 points and 11 boards. DeMarcus Cousins had 14 points and 8 boards with 12 of those coming in the second half. And John Wall? He had an off shooting night (4-12) but complemented that with 8 assists and zero turnovers and no fouls. Yes, that stat was worth highlighting.

I have to say, I was impressed with Crean and the Hoosiers. If you take the UK streak out (and we won’t be doing that), his Hoosiers actually won the game 73-72. And this UK/IU game was eerily similar of a UK/Kansas matchup almost 20 years ago. Rick Pitino, getting it handed to him against Kansas, defiantly refused to surrender the game and kept his starters in pressing until very late in the Jayhawks 150-95 win. Today it was Crean, keeping his starters in until the final minute. That thing worked out well for Pitino and the Cats. we’ll see if Crean can turn this into a real rivalry again after back to back UK blowout wins.

For the complete game stats, go here.

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