UK’s last warmup game (before the Cardinals from the mediocre part of the state show up) was Lamar. Lamar came in looking to win, not just be competitive, but beat Kentucky. Lamar came into Rupp with an 8-4 record with losses to Louisville, Ohio State, Ohio and TCU. The Cardinals only averaged 71 points per game compared to UK’s 82 ppg. It stood to reason that UK shouldn’t have any problems with this Lamar squad.
UK started off red hot, and you’re going to have to take my word for it because the fighting Travis Fords were busy going into double overtime with the Big East team SMU (sounds stupid doesn’t it?). Lamar stormed back with their unfortunate haircuts and tattoos to pull within 2.
UK, for the entire 1[SUP]st[/SUP] half was hustling and getting deflections left and right. The problem was they weren’t coming up with the ball. Lamar was reacting to the loose ball quicker than UK and turned those broken plays into points. UK played solid defense as Calipari was telling them to stay in front of their man and not reach or gamble. Lamar was still hitting fade way jumpers with hands in the face and jumpers over Davis’ outstretched arms. At the half Lamar was only down a manageable 16 points.
Uk in the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] half after a sluggish type start finally started to pull away after one pivotal play. Jones had to inbounds after a pat Knight timeout. He passed to Doron Lamb but it was in the corner 94 feet away from the basket with full court pressure. Lamb threw out of the double team back to Jones. Jones took one dribble passed ahead to Miller who then passed to Teague who then alley ooped to Davis for the dunk: A full court press breaker that included only one dribble. Adolph Rupp would be proud.
Everytime Lamar would try to make a run, MKG would take it to the rack and get an “AND 1”. When MKG wasn’t owning people’s souls, Miller was nailing 3’s that simply crushed the spirit of the Cardinals. Props to Lamar’s Mike James who had 29 points….on 29 field goal attempts to boot.
MKG, the player of the game, finished with 18 points 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Darius Miller looked great as usual with his 15 and 6. Da Brow had a “ho-hum” day with 10 points, 13 boards and 6 blocks (he got cheated on a few blocks, seemed like a lot more than 6). Teague struggled with 6 turnovers, but did have 15 points and 4 assists. Lamb had a pedestrian 12 points and only 1 3 pointer and Terrence Jones made his triumphant return notching 9 points and 6 boards in only 27 minutes of action.
Lamar fought hard, but UK overcame them with efficient shooting at 50%, 5 more team rebounds and 10 blocks. UK beat a tough team by 22 points and looked primed and ready for Louisville who finally lost their first game to Georgetown Wednesday night. Louisville won’t want to lose 2 games in a row, but guess what? Who cares what they want? UK beats Lamar 86-64. Now it’s time for the other L-word Cardinals
