Kentucky Wildcats vs Arkansas Razorbacks Postgame Notes and Quotes

1 of 3

Arkansas Razorbacks at Kentucky Wildcats, Men’s Basketball
Rupp Arena, Lexington, Ky., Feb. 28, 2015
FINAL SCORE: Kentucky 84, Arkansas 67

Kentucky is 29-0, 16-0 in the Southeastern Conference. Arkansas is 23-6 overall, 12-4 in league play.
Kentucky leads the series 26-11.
Kentucky clinched the SEC championship outright today.
- It is Kentucky’s 46^th regular-season SEC championship.
- It is Coach John Calipari’s 13^th regular-season conference title, including his third at UK.
With 29 consecutive victories …
- It extended the longest season-opening win streak for any team in SEC history.
- It is the second-longest overall win streak in Kentucky history.
- It extended the longest win streak for a John Calipari-coached team.
Kentucky is 206-27 all-time when ranked No. 1 and has won 51 of the last 53 games as The Associated Press top-ranked team.
UK is 49-1 all-time as the No. 1-ranked team in Rupp Arena.
Calipari has led three schools to a No. 1 ranking (Massachusetts, Memphis, Kentucky) and has a 95-9 record as the top-ranked coach, including 54-4 at UK.
Calipari is now 181-37 (.830) as head coach at Kentucky, the best winning percentage of any coach in UK history.
UK led the entire game and has trailed for only 149:01 of a possible 1,175 minutes this season.
- This was the third consecutive game that the Wildcats did not trail.
- UK has trailed for only 22:11 of the possible 240 minutes this season vs. ranked foes.
Kentucky has defeated its six ranked opponents this season by an average of 17.2 points per game.
Kentucky returns to action Tuesday at Georgia. Game time is 9 p.m. and it will be televised on ESPN.

Team Notes

Kentucky scored 84 points today and has averaged 89.3 over the last three games.
UK shot 75 percent from the line, 21 of 28. UK has made at least 70 percent of its foul shots in 13 of the last 17 games.
Key stats for the Cats:
- UK won rebounding 38-32, leading to a 40-24 advantage in points in the paint.
- UK won points off turnovers, 16-9. UK has won or tied points off turnovers in every game this season.
- UK won bench points 24-7. UK has won bench points in every game this season.
Kentucky’s streak of 927 consecutive games with a 3-pointer was extended when Aaron Harrison tripled at the 18:02 mark of the first half.

First-Half Facts

Kentucky’s opening lineup featured Andrew Harrison, Aaron Harrison, Trey Lyles, Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein for the 10th time this season.
Kentucky scored on five of the first six possessions in jumping out to an 11-2 lead.
UK steadily built the advantage, leading by as many as 16 points at 32-16 with 5:33 remaining.
At that point, Arkansas called timeout and responded with a 7-0 run to cut it to 32-23.
The Wildcats closed the period with a 10-3 spurt and went to intermission ahead 42-26.

Second-Half Story

Kentucky started the second half with Tyler Ulis, Devin Booker, Trey Lyles, Karl-Anthony Towns and Dakari Johnson.
Arkansas got within 13 points on two occasions early in the half but got no closer.
UK led by as many as 31 points at 78-47.

Player Notes

In back-to-back games, Trey Lyles has his two highest-scoring games of the season. He had 18 points Wednesday at Mississippi State and 18 today.
Karl-Anthony Towns had eight points, making 4-of-5. Over the last five games he has made 87 percent of his shots, 20-of-23.
Aaron Harrison had nine points and a career-high five steals.
Andrew Harrison tied Lyles for game-high honors with 18 points. It is his second-highest game of the season.
Devin Booker scored 10 points, his fourth double-figure game in a row and 17^th double-figure game of the season.
Tyler Ulis notched 14 points, tying his season high set in December at Louisville.
Willie Cauley-Stein had seven points and a solid floor game with nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and four blocked shots.

Home/Kentucky basketball