Sweet Redemption! Cats survive cold shooting start, dump Gators in swamp 89-77

by Paul Jordan

Finally.  After four years of frustration, the Kentucky Wildcats took the huge step of vanquishing the ghosts of seasons past and on a chilly night in Florida, exorcized their greatest demon with a huge road win over the Florida Gators.  Tonight, the Gators were but a mere shell of their former NCAA glory and the Wildcats retook their rightful place as the team to beat in the SEC.

As we kall know, the game was in the swamp, so it was not without it’s own special brand of drama.  At the start, it seemed that Kentucky had packed their lackadasical play from the Georgia game and brought it south, as the Gators found themselves up 7-0 just 4:00 into the game.  The Gator’s missed a crucial opportunity to jump out and bury the Cat’s early, but the Gators missed lots of opportunities as well and this game had the start of an ugly, ugly game.

Florida led 9-4 with 12:13 left in the half, and the Cats were sporting a 2-13 shooting night (15.4%).  The clang of the rim was prevalent tonight as the ugliness extended to both teams as they shot just 5-22 and the Gators was just 1-6 on 3-pointers.  Florida maintained their lead through most of the first half, leading 20-15 but then UK went on a 8-0 run fueled by 4 points each from Bledsoe and Wall and the Wildcat’s showed signs of life.  Bledsoe was the catalyst for most of the first half for the Wildcats and he showed a national audience that UK has more than one star freshman guard.

UK’s outside shots were still not falling, so they turned to working the ball inside and it resulted in a couple of Patterson dunks and Bledsoe layups and UK found themselves up 38-30.  Dan Werner hit a couple of free throws and you had to think UK had things in control up 38-32 at the half.  Bledsoe, Patterson, and Cousins started to rack up some stats as UK built the lead to 55-41 0ver the first few minutes of the second half.  The Gators really had no answer for UK’s inside game and the rushed several bad 3-point shots which was leading to their downfall.  Then as you knew would happen, some of those bombs started dropping by walker and Boynton picked up his scoring as the Gators crept back into the game.

Then in a horrible deja-vu moment of seasons past against UF, Vernon Macklin dropped a layup and the Gators took a 73-72 lead with just 5:12 remaining.  But as we have stated before…. this is not your Kentucky Wildcats of recent lore.  Patterson made a jumper and was fouled, but he missed the FT and Cousins did a great job of keeping the ball alive and Dodson drained a three for a 5 point possession.  Chandler made a FT to make it 77-74 but Bledsoe drained a trey and added a layup.  Hohn Wall sank four free throws in a row and UK had victory in the bag at 86-74.  John Wall added a last three pointer for the final margin.

Like so many games this year, UK was tested, but bounced back, and that folks is the sign of a very good team.  UK showed how scary their offensive display can be as after a slow first 8 minutes, the Cats scored 85 points in just 32 minutes.  DeMarcus Cousins shows that defensive intensity that keeps UK in the game and you have to love Daniel Orton on defense.  He blocked three shots on one possession and had four on the evening.

The night belonged to Eric Bledsoe.  In a night where Boynton/Wall was supposed to be the main card, Bledsoe knocked down 10-13 shots with 3-4 treys, had 7 rebounds and 5 assists.  Wall had a steady 19 points with 6 assists.  Patrick Patterson came up with the big basket when needed and tossed in 15 points and 7 boards.  Darius Miller had a nice game and scored some key baskets as well.

All in all, a complete team effort by UK in a tough road environment.  UK seemed poised all night and really did not seem to rattled by the crowd and once again, played their best ball when the game is on the line.  A huge win for UK as they are starting to look invincable  A huge loss for UF, which falls to 0-2 in the SEC and has a season rapidly resembling another NIT season. For complete game stats, go here and check out the great postgame video from ESPN below. 

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