Kentucky Wildcats – 117 ; Ottawa Braves – 58

No Ottawa Braves are not from Canada but actually Ottawa Kansas.

Cats started off strong on a bucket by Isaiah Briscoe then on the other end a block by Skal Labissere then a run out layup by Jamal Murray. Ottawa called a time out at 19:21 left in the half. Just in the first minute of play you could tell this is going to be a fun team to watch. Poythress checked in and there was a rather loud ovation for him. What does he do? Drains a three. At the first media time out Kentucky lead 21-7 thanks in part to the hot shooting, especially from 3.

Kentucky’s defense was outstanding in the first 10 minutes of play, was it because it’s Ottawa? Maybe, but regardless the defense was on point. There were some points of the first 10 minutes that Ottawa couldn’t even get it past half court. Derrek Willis was getting in on the defense fun blocking a 3 point shot then going down and getting the reverse layup, much to Big Blue Nations delight. It took a couple minutes, Jamal Murray started to light it up making two 3’s in a row and had 10 points at the halfway point in the half. Cats would lead 38-8 at the 10 minute mark.

Charles Matthews checked in and went to work driving down the lane, missed the dunk, but got his rebound back and drew the foul. Ottawa seemed to setting a little bit as they would score on 3 consecutive possessions and bring the score to 42-15 in favor of Kentucky. An Ottawa player faked out Isaac Humphries, went right down the lane and scored. One thing you could notice is this team is a lot more fundamentally sound compared to last years team at this point in the season. Kentucky would lead 55-20  at the 5:00 minute mark.

Charles Matthews checked back in and scored right away. Ottawa didn’t care as they made two 3’s on back to back possessions. There was a possession were Skal Labissere made the steal, threw it Matthews who passed it behind his back to Murray when then lobbed it up for the dunk to Skal. Then moments later on a run out, Charles Matthews no look passed it to Skal for an emphatic dunk. Ottawa went on a scoring drought for about 2 minutes and Kentucky took advantage. Kentucky would go into halftime with a 67-35 lead.

Kentucky started off the second half much like they starts off the first, just scoring at will. They scored on 6 straight possessions before Ottawa took a time and would lead 80-37 just 3 minutes in to the second half. Ulis was sensational shooting the 3 ball making 4 of 5. That wasn’t the only impressive stat from Ulis at this point in the game he had 17 with 8 assists at the 16 minute mark. Kentucky would lead Ottawa 85-37 with 15 minutes left in the second half.

Kentucky held Ottawa to just 6 points in the first 10 minutes of play in the second half. Kentucky reached the century mark with 5:01 left in the game on an aggressive rebound and put back by Alex Poythress. Kentucky led 101-50 at the 5 minute mark.

Jamal Murray was the leading scorer for the game with 22. Murray was also the leading rebounder with 12. That wasn’t the best part though, Jamal Murray would come close to recording a triple double with 9 assists before being taken out of the game. Tyler Ulis would lead the team in assists with 10. Kentucky would go on to win the game in impressive fashion 117-58.