Wow, all I can say is wow. Kentucky came into the game favored by 12 and we had that in the first 7 minutes with a 23-10 lead. We have been seeing UK dominating on the defensive end and in this game we got to see what the Wildcats are like when the defense and offense are clicking on all cylinders. UK rolls 86-52. The 34 point beat down doesn’t even show how dominating Kentucky was thanks to playing the bench early and basically letting South Carolina score late.
#1 UK improves to 23-1, 9-0 in the SEC. Kentucky hasn’t been 9-0 in the SEC in 7 years. USC decreases to 9-13, 1-7 in the SEC. UK has now won 5 in a row since losing at USC ranked #1 two seasons ago.
USC has played UK 56 times and this defeat was the 4th largest against Kentucky.
Kentucky had only 3 turnovers which is a new season low previously had 4 against Portland. Cal continues to say that he wants UK to get better, if it gets better than this then it really isn’t fair to everyone else…oh my goodness..
This is the 15th straight win for the Cats, this marks the 2nd longest streak under Coach Cal. UK had a 19 game win streak during the 09-10 season.
The crowd was great. Several thousand UK fans in attendance. Only Kentucky can be playing on the road and the home team comes out on the floor to a chorus of boos. Love it!
Davis was the clear player of the game as he broke Shaq’s freshman block record with his 8 blocks. He now has 116 blocks, which puts him at the 8th most in one season in SEC history. He finished with 22 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 assist, 9-10 from the field, 4-5 from the line, and 0 turnovers.
Other scorers: Lamb-18 points (6-7 from the field, 3-3 from three, 0 turnovers), Jones-16 points (6 rebounds, 4 assist, 2 steals, 1 block, 0 turnovers), Wiltjer-12 points (4 rebounds, 1 assist, 0 turnovers), Kidd-Gilchrist-7 points (5 rebound, 0 turnovers), Miller-5 points (4 assist, 2 rebounds), Teague-4 points (3 assist, 1 steal), and Vargas with 2 points (Vargas showing us he can drive and not get blocked).
UK shot 32-62 (51.6%) from the field, 6-14 (42.9%) from three, 16-21 (76.2%) from the line.
USC could only score from the three shooting 9-20 from behind the arc.
Damien Leonard the only player for USC that had a decent game contributed with 4 of those threes and scored 19 points with only 1 turnover. The rest of the team…not so much…
UK won the rebound battle 32-25, 17 assist to their 10, 6 steals to their 0. Blocks were very close as UK had 10 to USC who had 9. USC had 8 turnovers to our 3.
Doron Lamb after the game:
I had a great shoot around, made a lot of shots in the shoot around and my teams found me and I made my shots.
We just want to knock things out in shoot around and get some rest and we did that. Lots of energy from our team with the starters and off the bench.
(Asked on playing the point) I’m comfortable playing the point. I know the plays now and I want to get my teammates involved and was able to do that today.
We got to keep working together and our dream will come true. I have one more thing to say for the Big Blue Nation, I want everyone to follow me on Twitter: DLamb20.
Coach Cal after the game:
Here is what you had. Lamb shoots well, Kidd-Gilchrist did what he does, Davis played great, Jones was a man, Teague played like what we wanted for a point guard. We only had 1 turnover at the half, which is ridiculous for how fast we play.
All I want to know is, are we getting better? That is what matters to me and I think we are.
They all played well. When I recruited Jones, his best part of his game was his play making, not his scoring.
When you block a bunch of balls and they are afraid to go in there, it makes it difficult for them. Forces them to shoot long range shots but we are long so it is still difficult.
I thought Wiltjer played well. I got to give him more minutes and these games allow me to. He took 14 shots in 18 minutes, that is hard thing to do but I’m happy with that. We have a whole group of guys that played well and that is why we have this kind of score.
I will watch this game tonight and have it broken down for the guys to look at tomorrow.
Monday we will zone in on what we need to do with Florida.
Cats now have a big battle in Rupp Tuesday night against the 2nd place team in the SEC, the Florida Gators. Gators will come in 19-4, 7-1 in the SEC. Florida will likely be move up into the top ten on the updates polls Monday. This would be the 3rd time this season a top ten team has come to Rupp. UNC was #5 and overrated UofL was #4.
Kentucky has quite the onslaught ahead of them: Florida, @Vandy, Ole Miss, @Miss. St., Vandy, Georgia and then @Florida.
Go Cats! Beat Gators!
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