No.1 UK has South Carolina seeing blue during Valentine’s Day massacre
Kentucky guard Devin Booker shoots the ball during the second half of the University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball game versus University of South Carolina basketball game at Rupp Arena in Lexington , Fl., on Saturday, February 14, 2015. . Photo by Jonathan Krueger
February 14, 2015
By Joshua Huff
Seven UK players scored eight or more points during the Valentine’s Day massacre of 2015 as No. 1 UK ran South Carolina off the court in Rupp Arena in a 77-43 rout.
The game was hardly in question after the first ten minutes as UK jumped out to an 18-3 lead thanks in part to South Carolina making just two of its first 10 shots.
“We missed shots and those missed shots led us to hang our heads,” South Carolina head coach Frank Martin said. “And if you hang your head against a team like Kentucky you see what happens.”
What proceeded to happen just went to show the talent discrepancy that lurks between the top-tier SEC teams and the bottom feeders of the conference.
The Gamecocks had no answer for the Cats’ defense, with only one player scoring more than seven points. Guard Sindarius Thornwell had 20 points, and was the only effective Gamecock on Saturday.
“We didn’t put up a fight,” Martin said. “We walked in there, and as soon as we got punched, we went down. We never fought back.”
Everybody else was a day late, a dollar short, Martin said.
UK on the other hand, played with an intensity and passion that was rediscovered during the knockout battles against Florida and LSU. The Cats shot 56 percent from the field in the first half as they took a 43-18 lead into halftime, where the game was eclipsed by an outstanding halftime performance by The Fireworks.
The Gamecocks did themselves no favors to begin the second half, as they mired themselves in a nearly four-minute scoring drought that helped the Cats increase their lead to 30 with 10 minutes left in the game.
The return of forward Trey Lyles helped spur on UK as he returned to the starting lineup for the first time since his illness, playing in favor of Dominique Hawkins, who had started the last three games.
But it was the combination of Willie Cauley-Stein, Aaron Harrison and Dakari Johnson that was too much for South Carolina.
Cauley-Stein scored 14 points, much off of alley-oops, while Harrison continued his hot run with 11 points. But it was Johnson who came to play, as he finished with a double-double (10 points and 13 rebounds).
“Today he gets 13 rebounds,” UK head coach John Calipari reflected on Johnson’s performance. “He went after every ball and he did it in 21 minutes.”
It was the size advantage down low that proved to be the decisive factor in UK’s win as South Carolina had no answer for how to score in the paint. UK outscored the Gameocks 36-14 in the paint and won the rebounding advantage, 45-21.
After two physical conference games that were determined late, the game against South Carolina was just the type of contest Calipari was looking for – a blowout.
“What we needed was to be in a war where we get up 13 and then we push it to 20,” he said. “The other team’s battling, it’s six, four, five and it gets to 13 and we get it to 20. That’s what we’ve been lacking.”
