The final score was Florida 88, Kentucky 66. It was the third loss in the past four games for the Wildcats, a trend that began following an 82-80 loss to Tennessee on January 24 in Knoxville.
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“They are playing harder than Kentucky”, Bilas said late in the game. “They wanted it worse than we wanted it”.
“Really, there’s not a whole lot of good things you can say”, Kim Anderson said on KTGR after the game.
Saturday’s loss snapped the Volunteers’ four-game winning streak.
Florida now has a dominant win over a Top 10 team to go with its quality losses.
“He hit some big jump shots for us”. “Maybe we have hit rock bottom and maybe we haven’t hit rock bottom”.
The No. 8 Wildcats shot only 38 percent from the field, allowed Florida to shoot 68 percent in the second half, and were outrebounded 54-29, causing United Kingdom head coach John Calipari to take his team to task in the postgame interview session.
The Gators absolutely smothered Kentucky, holding the Wildcats to 0.84 points per possession. Kentucky then held the Bulldogs scoreless over the last three minutes of the extra period to pull away.
“I still love this team”, Calipari said. “I’m not going to make any excuse”.
After scoring Florida’s third consecutive 3-pointer, the freshman let his emotions out on the court in front of the 11,171 screeching fans he’d just sent into a frenzy at the soldout O’Connell Center. The previous low for a first half was the 29 against Georgia on Tuesday.
After five straight losses to the Wildcats and two seasons of struggle, Hill made sure his teammates got a taste of victory against the SEC’s top program in record-setting fashion. Florida out-rebounded Missouri 56-32, including 31-13 in the first half, and the Gators had 19 second-chance points to the Tigers’ nine. Although Hill dealt with foul trouble for most of the first half, he still managed to be one of the most productive players on the court Saturday in 27 minutes of action.
Calipari called another timeout trying to stem Florida’s momentum with 14:44 left. “They did everything sideways”. Both present matchup problems as they each get the foul line with regularity.
But that rise has very rarely featured triumphs over the Kentucky Wildcats – the monument to hardwood greatness the Gators have had to summit time and again – like the one that Florida scored on Saturday night. Freshman guard Malik Monk added 11 points.
PLAYER TO WATCH: Ole Miss F Sebastian Saiz: This 6-foot-9 senior from Spain averages 11.2 rebounds to rank sixth among Division I players.
Later in the game, Robinson scampered back to the defensive end with three fingers in the air.
“They just beat us – beat us to every ball”, he said. That 1996-97 team went on to win the SEC regular-season title. As we just talked to our team about, we’ve got to have good preparation tomorrow – another quick turn.
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“I told them ‘you have to play better, ‘” Calipari said. The game is scheduled for an 8:15 p.m. start time and it will be televised nationally on ESPN.
