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The No. 22 UK men’s basketball team did all the fans who showed on the cold evening Tuesday a favor by taking the Georgia Bulldogs out of the game early. The Cats continued their dominance at home beating the Bulldogs 82-48.

UK started the game firing on all cylinders on offense with all of its starters making a field goal and jumping out to a 17-8 lead with 14:25 left to play in the first half. 

The offense was humming until they reached 24 points and that is when both teams started struggling from the field. 

Even with freshman Jamal Murray making three first half threes, UK offense missed the presence of senior Alex Poythress in the paint. Marcus Lee would start for him for the second straight game after it was announced he would miss the game against the Bulldogs with a right knee injury.

“Well, you’ve got to have someone around to go and you’ve got to get layups,” head coach John Calipari said. “I thought we did some good stuff defensively when they tried to throw it to the post today.”

Lee was able to chip in two points before he had to sit because foul trouble with over ten minutes still left in the half.

Around that point in the game is when both teams went cold from the field. There were zero field goals between the two teams for nearly five minutes.

That is when Tyler Ulis started to emerge for the Cats. Ulis has been scoring big at a large clip since entering SEC play and he played a big part in a 6-0 run for the Cats to close the first half. 

The second half is when UK really took advantage of the Bulldogs ice cold shooting, 5-for-25 from the field in the first half alone. Georgia was held without a field goal for nearly 18 minutes before finally hitting a shot after 22 consecutive misses.

Poor shooting combined with 15 forced turnovers really helped the Cats pull away from the Bulldogs in the second half. Murray came out of the locker room and quickly made it a 50-24 game after with two more threes.

“We knew what the game plan was,” Murray said. “We just made shots, shot a high percentage and kept going at them. We are the aggressors.”

Murray finished the game with 24 points on another efficient shooting night going 8-for-14 from the field and 6-for-10 from three.

The freshman has really come on for the Cats recently, putting up big numbers in the last two games. Murray has scored 59 points in the last two games while shooting a combined 14-for-20 from three-point range in those games.

“I’m just finally hitting shots. I don’t really feel like I’m hot or anything,” Murray said. “I’m just hitting a ton of baskets and shots that I should be making. I just try to get open.” 

When it wasn’t Murray in the second half, it was Ulis. The sophomore guard was a big catalyst for the Cats defense coming up with three steals. He also turned in the offensive production that everyone has come to expect with 14 points and 8 assists.

The combination of Poythress being out and the fact that the team had a comfortable lead for most of the game allowed Calipari to play some guys deeper on the bench more than he usually does. 

One of those being freshman Isaac Humphries. The Australian big man failed to score but he did provide a shot-blocking presence in the paint with four blocks. Following a four point, six rebound performance against Florida, Humphries is starting to show that he may deserve more minutes even when Poythress returns.

“Isaac was coached like he was a starter, so he’s able to go in — he was coached like he was a starter,” Calipari said. “And the same with Charles Matthews, trying to get him ready.”

The other beneficiary of the extra minutes available was guard Charles Matthews. The freshman out of Chicago came to UK with the athleticism to be an impact player on the defensive. He proved that he could a great energy-guy off bench against the Bulldogs with seven points and five rebounds. He showed a lot of fight for the Cats as he was able to pull down three offensive boards to give the team some extra possessions.

This win over Georgia is just the latest example of how dangerous the Cats can be in Rupp. Now the challenge comes with trying to play at the same level on the road.