In a game that was decided in the first few minutes in Rupp Arena, The Kentucky Wildcats jumped back on the right track after a loss to Indiana despite the Chattanooga Moccasins hanging around in the second half, the Cats move on to a solid 87-62 win.
Four minutes into the game will tell you how things went in the first half. With four minutes ticked away on the clock in Rupp Arena, Kentucky jumped out to a 16-2 lead, but it wasn’t without activity. At one point Coach John Calipari absolutely blew a fuse yelling at Terrence Jones due to his lack of production in the first half.
Kentucky shot 45 percent from the field and out rebound the Mocs 25-19 and 13 second chance points in the first half.
Terrence suffered a finger injury which has been announced as a dislocated finger on his shooting hand, and didn’t start the second half, and his first half production wasn’t great, zero points and one rebound, he then went out again around the 14 minute mark and it looked like his left hand and finger will be a story line moving forward for Kentucky. He finished scoreless for the game.
Pacing the Wildcats throughout the game was the freak athleticism of Anthony Davis. In the first half Davis already had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Davis finished with only 14 points but had 18 rebounds and five blocks and more importantly staying out of foul trouble to pace Kentucky.
Doron Lamb continued to be what he needs to be for Kentucky and that’s a leading scorer, in the first half he had nine points and added to that ending the game with 24 points . Doron Lamb can continue to lead the way for the Wildcats as long as he spreads his game around the court and isn’t limited to three pointers, as shown tonight with a couple of floaters and lay ups.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was…Well…Kidd-Gilchrist. At the half he had four rebounds, two assists and eight points. Absolutely filling up the stat sheets, and he finished with 17 points, eight rebounds and six assists. It seems night in and night out Kidd-Gilchrist gets his but he does it rather quietly. I really don’t know a better player.
Darius Miller had a quiet game, but continued scoring the ball solidly but Calipari was a little upset with Miller after the game, the only persons that Calipari didn’t compliment was Miller and Jones, and he said two guys played poor. Miller, shooting 12 points on the game and shooting good percentages all around to do so, didn’t rebound the ball well. Only three on the game.
Eloy Vargas put in good minutes for Kentucky, after the game Calipari told him when he goes on the floor; he needs to play like he is the best center on the floor. Get big, get rebounds and block shots. I still think Vargas has one break out game.
Kentucky used a number of weapons on their way to a 38-23 half time lead, including a three pointer from Kyle Wiltjer. Many wondered if Wiltjer was just going through some growing pains in the loss to Indiana where he passed up a couple of threes, but in games like these, fans just have to realize that in big games, Wiltjer may have butterflies, he’ll be fine going forward and it’s a good learning experience. He finished with nine points.
The strides that we continue to see from Marquis Teague have to make a Wildcat fan happy. 11 points, eight assists and one turnover is something that Wildcat fans want to see. One thing that I personally liked seeing from Teague is the way he took three point shots. Sure he was only 1-5, but Teague took GOOD shots to keep the defense honest so they wouldn’t sag off of him, Coach Calipari pointed it out after the game as well.
Calipari said going away from the game it was a “mad” game for him, he said he was mad at a few guys which led him to get mad at the whole team. One group in particular he was mad at—the group that came in with three minutes to go and Chattanooga went on a 12-0 run. Coach Calipari said after the game that you have the Kentucky jersey on, so you better be ready to play, he said he didn’t care if the fans were chanting your name, you weren’t going in.
Kentucky, despite the light finish cruises on to a 87-62 and will take the court again on Tuesday against Samford.