By Jordan Ondrof

[email protected]

UK men’s basketball (9-1) continued to show room for improvement in an 72-58 victory over Arizona State University (6-3).

The Cats took the lead at 7-6 and never looked back. The Cats never trailed in the second half and have never lost a game to ASU.

Related: Better than front row seats at Rupp. Check out our photo gallery

Senior Alex Poythress, even though he only played eight minutes in the first half, finally played like the “elite athlete” who head coach John Calipari has been asking too see. Rupp Arena was louder then it has been all season when the senior stole an inbound pass and finished with a monster one-hand jam.

Poythress’ knee was bothering him, putting him out for most of the fist half, but he was able to return and have an impact in the second half.

“When Alex, when they told me, ‘knee,’ I was literally physically ill to my stomach for him,” Calipari said.

There has been a lot of concern about the lack of production from freshman Skal Labissiere and he did not help his case Saturday night. Calipari started the 6’11” big man, but quickly pulled him out of the game after he let a rebound slip though his fingers.

“We just have a long way to go. I mean, we really do, and Skal’s thing, again, what were the fouls? Were they like hard fouls? No, they were fouls because he doesn’t want to bend. He wants to use his hands. And this is all a process, and he’s got to accept, OK, now there’s no question, I can’t play this way and play and stay in games,” Calipari said.