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Kentucky scored a season-high 92 points plus boxscore and other game notes

Kentucky scored a season-high 92 points today. UK is 8-1 this season when scoring at least 76 points but 1-14 when scoring 75 or fewer.

Go here for boxscore.

Team Records and Series Notes                                       

  • Kentucky finishes the regular season 9-15 overall, 8-9 in the Southeastern Conference.
    • completed the season 5-6 in Rupp Arena, the first sub.-500 season in the venue’s history and the first since the 1926-27 season at home.
  • South Carolina is 6-14 overall, 4-12 in league play.
  • Kentucky leads the overall series 53-13.
    • UK leads 29-2 in games played in Lexington.
  • Next: Kentucky clinched the 8 seed in the Tournament with Mississippi State’s loss to Auburn. UK will play the ninth-seeded Bulldogs on Thursday at noon ET (11 a.m. ET in Nashville, Tennessee) in the second round of the tournament.
    • The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
    • The winner of Thursday’s game will play top-seeded Alabama on Friday at noon ET in the quarterfinals.
    • It’s the first time UK will begin its run before the quarterfinals since the tournament expanded in 2013.
    • The Wildcats will try to win four games in a row at the SEC Tournament to clinch an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, which UK hasn’t done since 1952.

Player Notes   

  • Sparked by eight points in the first three minutes, Jr. finished with a career-high 21 points.
    • He made six 3-point shots, his most 3 in a game at UK.
    • He was 7 of 13 from the floor.
    • He also tied his career high with three assists.
  • Davion Mintz had 20 points, just one shy of his career high thanks to a career-high six 3-pointers.
    • It’s the seventh consecutive game he has made at least two long balls and the 10th time in the last 11 games.
    • He had five 3-pointers in the first 5:09 of the second half.
    • He is averaging 16.8 points over his last five games with a combined 20 3-pointers.
    • Mintz had a game-high seven assists and totals 15 over the last two games, the best two-game stretch of his career.
  • Oliver Sarr had 15 points, his 13th double-figure game of the season, in just 21 minutes.
    • It’s the eighth time in the last 11 games he has scored in double figures.
  • Isaiah Jackson collected 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, his second double-double of the season.
    • It is his sixth game in a row to score in double figures and he is averaging 14.3 points per game during that span.
  • . added seven points and eight rebounds. He is averaging 8.6 boards over the last five games.
  • Making his first start at Kentucky, had two points, two rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot.
  • Freshman scored two points, his first time in the scorebook since Feb. 3 at Missouri.
  • Freshman Cam’Ron Fletcher scored two points, his first tally since Nov. 24 vs. Richmond.
  • Sophomore scored his first two points as a Wildcat.
  • Freshman saw his first game action in a Wildcat uniform.
  • Sophomore Brennan Canada logged minute for the first time since the season opener.

Coach John Calipari 

  • Calipari is now 339-92 at UK.
  • Calipari has a 784-232 all-time on-court record. 
  • UK is 275-54 under Calipari against teams unranked in The Associated Press Top 25.
  • Calipari is 15-4 in his career vs. South Carolina.
  • Calipari’s career record improved to 165-49 in March and April games.

 Team Notes 

  • Kentucky limited South Carolina to 38.2% shooting. UK is 209-24 under Calipari when keeping the competition to 40% or less, although just 7-5 this season.
    • UK has held nine of its last 14 opponents to 40% or less from the floor.
  • UK scored a season-high 92 points today. UK is 8-1 this season when scoring at least 76 points but 1-14 when scoring 75 or fewer.
  • Kentucky made 13 of 27 3-point shots today, its second-most long balls of the season.
    • It’s the fifth time in the last seven games the Wildcats have made at least seven 3-pointers.
  • This is the first time this season that UK had two 20-point scorers. The last time was Feb. 4, 2020, when Immanuel Quickley (21) and Nick Richards (27) did so vs. Mississippi State.
  • With 17 assists and 17 turnovers, UK is now 9-3 this season when breaking even or better on assist/TO margin. The Wildcats are 0-12 this season with a negative assist-to-turnover margin.
  • UK led by as many as 33 points and won by 28. UK is 288-12 under Calipari when leading by at least 10 points during the game, 7-4 this season.
    • It was the Wildcats’ biggest margin of victory in SEC play this season and second only overall to its 36-point victory vs. Morehead State in the season opener.
    • It was Kentucky’s largest margin of victory vs. an SEC foe since also beating South Carolina by 28 (76-48) on Feb. 5, 2019.

In the First Half 

  • Kentucky started Davion Mintz, Brandon Boston Jr., Jacob Toppin, Isaiah Jackson and for the first time. It is the ninth different starting lineup used by the Wildcats this season.
    • Keion Brooks Jr. and were the first substitutes at the 14:11 mark.
    • With Lance Ware and Devin Askew coming in at 12:47, UK had nine players in the game during the first eight minutes.
  • Kentucky scored on its first five possessions, three baskets by Boston – including a pair of 3-pointers – and two buckets by Jackson, in staking a 12-4 lead.
  • UK, however, missed 10 of its next 12 shots as South Carolina got its first lead at 18-17.
  • Trailing 22-20 with nine minutes to go, UK closed the half with a 16-6 run and went to intermission ahead 36-28.
    • 3-pointers were the difference in the first half, as UK made 5 of 14 while USC was 0 of 5.
    • Boston led the Wildcats with 12 points while Sarr contributed 11.
    • Kentucky is now 6-6 this season when leading at halftime.

 In the Second Half 

  • Kentucky began the second half with Mintz, Boston, Toppin, Brooks and Jackson.
  • Kentucky opened with a 19-8 run, ballooning the lead to 55-36, forcing a USC timeout at 14:51.
    • Mintz scored 15 of the 19 points, making five 3-pointers, including three long balls in a 42-second span that preceded the South Carolina timeout.
    • Counting the end of the first half, UK had a 35-14 run after trailing 22-20.

Kentucky expanded its largest lead to 33 points at 88-55, its largest lead of the season against an SEC opponent.

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