Otega Oweh extended his streak of double-digit scoring efforts to 23 games by scoring 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half as No. 14 Kentucky cruised past South Carolina 80-57 on Saturday at Rupp Arena.
Brandon Garrison scored a season-high 15 points, while Koby Brea and Amari Williams each had 10 points for the Cats.
UK dominated the game in bench points (36-4) and points in the paint (44-26).
Kentucky (16-7, 5-5 Southeastern Conference) started slowly on the offensive end, missing its first six shots and nine of its first ten. However, the UK defense kept South Carolina in check and the Gamecocks led just 4-2. A Garrison layup tied the game at 4-4.
South Carolina (10-13, 0-10) would build an 11-8 lead before Brea scored five in a row to give UK its first lead, 13-11. The run continued with a three from Jaxson Robinson and another three from Brea, the latter giving the Cats a 19-11 lead and forcing a South Carolina timeout.
The Gamecocks scored the next five points to cut the UK lead to 19-16. However, Kentucky would close the half with a flourish. Carr scored seven consecutive Kentucky points to kick off a 14-3 run to close the half, a run that gave the Cats a 33-19 advantage at the half. Carr had nine points in the first half for UK and Brea had eight.
Kentucky scored the first four points of the second half to extend the lead to 37-19. However, South Carolina went on an 11-4 run to cut the deficit to 41-30. A Garrison layup stopped the run and would be the first two of nine consecutive UK points the sophomore would score. However, South Carolina would not go away, eventually cutting the UK lead to single digits at 50-41.
That’s when the Cats went on a run that put the game away. It started with an Oweh three, followed by an Oweh dunk. A Williams dunk and free throw, then a Lamont Butler layup and free throw made up the 11-0 run that gave UK a 61-41 lead. Kentucky would lead by as many as 26 in the second half.
Kentucky returns to action on Tuesday, hosting Tennessee at Rupp Arena. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. and the game can be seen on ESPN.
