South Carolina had a good six minutes.
Kentucky continued its hot play of late to pummel South Carolina 77-55 Tuesday night in Lexington. UK dominated the entire way; save for a six minute stretch early in the 1st half that saw South Carolina go on a 16-6 run that turned an 11-2 deficit into an 18-17 lead. John Calipari immediately called timeout, and UK responded with a 28-6 run to lead 45-24 at halftime. UK held South Carolina to 29% shooting and outrebounded them 41-23 while producing another balanced attack with Julius Mays leading 5 Cats in double figures with 15. Nerlens Noel added 10 rebounds and 5 blocks to his 10 points for another all-around impressive showing. His 5 blocks put him 1 ahead of Anthony Davis after 22 games. Noel and Mays were joined by Willie Cauley Stein (13), Archie Goodwin (13) and Ryan Harrow (12).
After the game John Calipari, who has been going without ties of late because he’s “sweating through them trying to coach effort” had praise for the effort of Willie Cauley-Stein and Kyle Wiltjer. After a recent practice observer remarked at the energy level, Calipari gave all the credit to Wiltjer saying “He’s trying to pull it out of Poythress”.
UK has another opportunity to beat up on a lesser known opponent as Auburn visits Lexington Saturday afternoon. It might be a challenge for this young team to avoid looking past the Tigers, who they beat by 22 at Auburn 2 weeks ago, to their showdown with Florida in Gainesville Tuesday night. The Gators, who took their first SEC loss Tuesday night at Arkansas, came into this week ranked #2 in the country.
Photo: Flickr/MegRobertsonNY
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