After what looked like a distracted first half, especially early on, turned into a Kentucky route as the Wildcats blew out Marist 108-58.
Perennial starter Terrence Jones was benched to open the game after last night’s events and the rest of the squad seemed out of sorts for most of the first half.
Not to take credit away from the Red Foxes as they shot a blistering 14-28 from the field and a smoking 62% from behind the arc.
Coach Cal attributed two freshman from the Cats not being down at the half.
[FONT=Arial]”Without Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis, we are down at halftime. Those two were so good in the first half. That’s the only reason we were up.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]The second half was totally different than the first as the Wildcats came out with more hustle and intensity than Marist could handle and the route was on from the opening whistle.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Calipari attributed defense as the main key of the second half run.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]”Well, we played better we stunted off the ball better, we helped off the ball better. By I think part of it is they got a little tired. I thought in the second half they wore down on shots they shot 50 percent in the first half.”[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Anthony Davis played his best game as a Cat, of course it was his first real one, but he used his length to outclass Marist all night long. Davis finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds and shot 10-13 from the field. My guess is 9 of those were dunks.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Marquis Teague used his quickness to get to the basket as he finished with 16 points with 4 assists and 3 turnovers.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Doron Lamb had a much improved game as he looked a lot more comfortable shooting the basketball scoring 15 points on 6-12 from the field but a lot better from behind the arc making 3 out of 5.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Michael Kidd-Gilchrist finished with a strong 15 points on 5-9 from the field and making all 5 of his free throws. MKG doesn’t have to score a point for him to make a difference as he hustles more than anyone on the floor on any given night.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Terrence Jones, who admitted that he was still a little banged up from the car wreck, finished with 8 points but showed a lot of intensity on defense during his 25 minutes.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]Rounding out the scoring for Kentucky was Kyle Wiltjer with 14, Darius Miller 8, Eloy Vargas had 5, and Sam Malone 4.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Arial]All in all it was a good win going into a lot tougher opponent with Kansas at Madison Square Garden. Should be a good one.[/FONT]
