This past Saturday from Gainesville, Florida we had the Top ranked No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats playing the Florida Gators, and Kentucky passed another tough team on their SEC Schedule and an away game that is always difficult in Gatorland.
With the NFL and NCAA football now in the past, it’s time to start looking at NCAA basketball and the NBA. Soon, we will be looking at March Madness with the NCAA tournament and the NBA playoffs.
The leading scorers in the game for the Wildcats were Harrison with 23 points and Town with 19 as Kentucky stayed unbeaten with the 68-61 win Saturday night, and now the Wildcats remain undefeated. Kentucky is now 23-0 overall and 10-0 in the Southeastern Conference. Prior to this season the Wildcats had lost three straight games to the Gators, so this snapped their losing streak against Florida who now are 12-11 overall and 5-5 in the SEC.
The 3 games last season that Florida beat Kentucky were 1st at home in Lexington, the 2nd in Gainesville and the 3rd in the SEC Tournament, but both teams did advance to the Final Four of MM. This Saturday game turned out to be closer than the Kentucky fans expected, as the media had pointed out that there was a big difference in the two teams, with Kentucky having the upper hand in talent of players. But the Gators stayed in the game exhibiting one of their best games this 2014-15 NCAA BB season.
Actually, the Florida Gators were up by nine points in the 1st half and with a 6-0 streak, they went up 44-42 and that was half way through the 2nd. But the game suddenly took a change if favor of Kentucky when Florida’s Robinson turned the ball over, and Kentucky’s Stein received the ball near the foul line, took a couple of step and dunked it over Kentucky’s Robinson who fouled Stein, thus he also made the free throw and scored 3 points, putting Kentucky in the lead, and they stayed there for the remainder of the game.
During the final stretch in the game, the foul shots turned out to be a big factor, as Kentucky finished the game making 21 of 22 from the free throw line, while Florida was 7 of 14 from the foul line in the game.
The Gators are struggling this season and have lost 5 out of their last 7 games, and the games could just as easily turned out to be losses for the Gators. While Kentucky, this was their 5th game that was decided by less than 10 points this 2014-15 season. In this game when the Gators got within a couple of points, the Wildcats answered scoring, and their scoring for the most part was made by just four Kentucky players.
For the Gators their leading scorer was Smith with 16 points, Hill with some 12 points, Carter scored 11 points and Frazier II who missed most of 2nd half of the game with an ankle injury scored 10 points.
These two SEC teams Kentucky and Florida will play again on March 7th 2015 in Lexington for the final game of the regular season, and it could be the game that determines if the Wildcats stay undefeated in the Southeastern Conference.
If you bet on college basketball at SBG Global, it may be interesting for you to know that the Kentucky Wildcats in the game from the 3 point line hit 21% of their shots and from the field they hit 47%. They presently are the only unbeaten team in the nation. The next game for the Wildcats is next Tuesday the 10th of February in an away game with the LSU Tigers.