Kentucky Basketball: Wildcat starters summit The Mount scoring 70 points
By Eric Thorne
The Kentucky basketball team was king of The Mount as they rolled to their second victory of the season behind 70 points from its starters beating visiting Mount St. Mary’s 80-55 in the Kentucky Classic on Tuesday.
While this was not Super Tuesday the Cats played like it, at least in the second half.
Trailing just 38-27 at halftime the Mountainers had to be feeling pretty good coming out of the locker room. But before you say Go Big Blue the host Wildcats reeled off a 23-5 run over 6:40 for a 61-32 cushion that grew to 31 with 7:24 remaining.
The Mountaineers had no answer to the Big Blue freight train that hit them.
Kentucky basketball explodes to start second half run away to victory
It was as efficient half as you could ask for this early in the season.
This game was nearly what happened two seasons ago when these two teams met.
Like before the teams traded blows early on with seven lead changes. But unlike 2019 this Kentucky team shot 56-percent in the first half yet barely led at the break.
UK needed an 18-3 second-half outburst led by Immanuel Quickley who racked up eight of his 13 second-half points during the spurt that helped UK pull away for an 82-62 win in 2019.
Oddly similar when flashing forward to 2021.
The makings of an 18-0 run 🔥 pic.twitter.com/ZJoABPhvoI
— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) November 17, 2021
This time it’s Kellan Grady who hits 3 of 5 field goals to kick start the half including 2 of 3 from behind the arc for 8 points.
While the Wildcats erupted in the second half just like they did against Robert Morris eventually winning the game 100-60 they got huge points off the bench. In this game that did not happen, despite the fact that Jacob Toppin and Lance Ware didn’t play due to injuries and CJ Fredrick is out for the season after having successful surgery earlier in the day.
However, what is most pleasing to Big Blue Nation to watch is that this team doesn’t cause you to rub your eyes in frustration or give you headaches like last year’s team did. Calipari is fine-tuning his offense instead of breaking it down to the bare bones and having to teach the entire team how to play at both ends of the floor.
A few quick thoughts