Kentucky overcomes Florida, 87-85 in Gainesville

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Kentucky overcame a less-than-stellar Southeastern Conference debut to earn a hard-fought win over Florida, 87-85 in Gainesville. The Wildcats were playing from behind for more than 28 of the game's 40 minutes, and yet the Cats outscored the Gators by 10 points in the final 20 minutes Saturday afternoon.

A gritty, team-wide effort made the difference.

The Cats hit five of their final six field goals and seven of their final eight free throws on the way to a two-point win.

With the victory, No. 6 Kentucky moves to 11-2 overall and 1-0 in the SEC.

Antonio Reeves finished the day as UK's leading scorer with 19 points, while Reed Sheppard and DJ Wagner added 14 points apiece. Veteran forward Tre Mitchell added a double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds against the Gators.

Aaron Bradshaw finished with seven boards and 10 points, including a critical three-pointer to put the Cats up 79-76 with 1:21 to play in the game. All of his points came in the second half, and he added two steals and one block.

Fellow 7-footer Ugonna Onyenso also saw considerable playing time in the SEC opener, and the sophomore earned six points and five rebounds in 15 minutes.

As a team, Kentucky shot 43 percent from the floor, 25 percent from deep and 71 percent from the free throw line. The Gators earned only a slight edge over the Cats in the highly-anticipated battle of the boards, 43-40, while Kentucky earned more points in the paint (40-36) and fast break points (19-12).

It was an uncharacteristic first half for the Wildcats, who entered Saturday's matchup as one of the best teams in the country with better than a 2-1 assist-to-turnover ratio. But in the first 20 minutes of play in Gainesville, the Cats had just two assists to seven turnovers.

The Wildcats were also struggling from deep (1-10 from behind-the-arc), while the Gators drained eight, three-pointers in the first half. Florida led by as many as 11, but the Cats were able to cut it to eight before the buzzer, 45-37.

Still, Kentucky was battling. Kentucky continued to cut into Florida's advantage to start the second half. Back-to-back baskets by Reeves and Wagner put the Cats within four points less than a minute after the break.

Four minutes later, Wagner drained a step-back triple from the top of the key to give Kentucky its first lead since the score read 8-6.

Wagner continued to pace Kentucky's offense, as he tried to will his team to a road victory. As a team, the Cats took better care of the ball in the second half, committing just two additional turnovers, while they limited the Gators behind-the-arc, giving up just a single three-pointer after the break, compared to eight in the first half.

With time dwindling, Kentucky's big men showed up big time.

Bradshaw's surprise triple followed by Onyenso's 1-of-2 trip to the free throw line put the Wildcats on top by four points with just over a minute to play in the game.

While Mitchell battled cramps, Bradshaw also went 1-2 from the line. Florida's Zyon Pullin, who was also in the midst of dealing with a leg cramp, drove to the basket and drew a foul off Reeves, converting a 3-point play and cutting Kentucky's lead to two, 81-79 with :30.5 to play.

Sheppard sank both of his following free throws to stretch UK's lead to four, before Pullin did the same to pull the Gators within two. On his next trip to the line, Sheppard once again went 2-2.

The Gators would try their luck against Sheppard on the line one more time before the buzzer, but the Kentucky freshman refused to be rattled. Another perfect visit to the charity stripe put Kentucky back on top by four, 87-83.

Not so fast. Sheppard made what could have been a costly mistake by fouling Florida on the resulting possession, and Florida's Alex Condon also went 2-of-2 from the line. But the Gators ran out of time, and Kentucky earned its first conference win of the season, 87-85 in front of 10,106 Florida faithful.

The Wildcats will continue SEC play Tuesday, when the Missouri Tigers pay the Cats a visit inside Rupp Arena. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN.

BBN TONIGHT

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