Kentucky Wildcats rebound from road woes, skin #13 Florida Gators 76-68
By Paul Jordan
Too much negativity has surround the Kentucky basketball program since Wednesday’s one point loss at Arkansas and you have to think the Wildcats are eager to redeem themselves on the court. At this point, the coaching has been done and the Wildcats had to go out and defend their home court against a team that was on a six game winning streak and was 5-1 on the road in the SEC. Kentucky started out battling on the boards and some early hot shooting to jump in front early. A Darius Miller trey gave Kentucky a 9-6 lead. Florida never allowed Kentucky to build on that and neither team was able to make much of a run for most of the first half. This continued until Vernon Macklin gave Florida a 20-17 lead with 7:02 left in the first half.
Kentucky responded and Kentucky went on a bit of a run, thanks to a trey by Brandon Knight and Kentucky went on a 7-0 run to take a 24-20 lead, which at this point represented the biggest lead of the game so far. That lead did not last long and a Kenny Boynton three-pointer and layup put Florida up 27-26 just a couple of minutes later. Kentucky was unfazed and Darius Miller went on a tear and scored seven straight UK points, putting the Cats up by four at 33-29. Florida made inroads yet again but Kentucky went in up 34-33 at the half.
Kentucky came out aggressive on the boards in the second half and used a Doron Lamb three and Josh Harrellson layup to take a 39-33 lead, which necessitated a timeout by Billy Donovan. Florida answered with two Boynton three-pointers and a Chandler Parsons jumper to knot the score at 41, but Brandon Knight answered with a trey to answer the Gator streak. As had been the case all day, every time Kentucky built a little breathing room, the Gator’s answered. Chandler Parsons hit a three pointer to pull the Gators to within 48-47 with 13:39 remaining.
With Terrence Jones on the bench with three fouls, Darius Miller took advantage of the slower, but bigger Alex Tyus and scored two straight baskets. Terrence Jones, back in the game and Josh Harrellson scored two quick baskets and Kentucky found breathing room, at 56-49, with 10:46 remaining. The Wildcats continued to play tough interior defense and denied the Gators anything inside, leaving Florida to resort to long jumpers and Harrellson and Jones allowed just one shot at the basket. Liggins and Lamb hit treys and another Lamb basket put the Wildcats up 10, at 66-56 with 6:49 remaining. Darius Miller hit a trey from the top of the key to put Kentucky up 69-58 heading into the critical last four minutes of the game.
For the most part, these Wildcats played well in crunch time and Terrence Jones dominated the game down the stretch. Jones had three rebounds, a steal, a block, and a basket over the next two minutes and kept Florida from making any inroads and a pair of Brandon Knight FT’s put Kentucky up 73-61 with 1:15 remaining. The Wildcats had a brief visit from their old nemesis poor free throw shooting and Florida cut the lead to 74-68 with :35 left, but a pair of Darius Miller FT’s provided the final margin and the Gators conceded defeat to UK when Miller grabbed the rebound from an errant Erving Walker three pointer.
All in all, this was perhaps Kentucky’s best performance of the season and it was a solid team effort. Darius Miller set another career high with 24 points on 9-15 shooting and he added 5 boards, 3 assists, and 3 blocks. Brandon Knight had 16 points with 6 assists and zero turnovers as he continues to emerge as the Wildcat’s leader. Doron Lamb had 14 points on 6-9 shooting while Terrence Jones had 8 points, 9 rebounds and three blocks. Josh Harrellson added 12 boards, including 6 offensive boards. Also key was the fact that Kentucky held Vernon Macklin and Alex Tyus to just 19 points and 9 rebounds combined. Holding those two in check offset the 21 points by Boynton and 15 by Parsons.
With the win, Kentucky wins their 33rd straight game at Rupp and John Calipari notched his 500th career win. The most important aspect of this game was the continued emergence of Darius Miller, who has finally stepped up and started to assert himself as a leader. For today, Kentucky took care of business and now we have to do some scoreboard watching and hope that Georgia falls to South Carolina tonight.
For complete game stats, go here.
photo credit: Pablo Alcala – Lexington Herald Leader
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