By Nick Gray | Basketball beat writer

ngray@kykernel.com

As the UK men’s basketball season wears on, its youth will continue to gain experience.

Freshman guard Andrew Harrison and sophomore forward Alex Poythress’ progressions trended upward as UK defeated Texas A&M University 68-51 before 22,634 fans who braved temperatures sinking into the single digits on Tuesday night.

Harrison scored eight points and struggled shooting the ball in the second half (0-for-7), but it is not the individual offensive production that UK head coach John Calipari is focused on looking into the future.

“He played a great first half,” Calipari said. “The thing I’m looking for is more energy and more juice. I don’t want anyone to watch him play and say, ‘Where’s his energy?’”

The Cats went against their recent trend of slow starts early in games, with Harrison hitting a 3-pointer on the first possession.

UK continued its hot streak with two more threes in the first three minutes of the game. The Cats led by at least five points in the final seven minutes of the first half.

UK started out the second half in a noiseless arena, allowing the Aggies back within four points. The Cats found their spark off the bench in Poythress.

His biggest highlight came after his personal 7-0 stretch was broken. Poythress caught a pass just outside the three-point line on the left elbow and drove to the rim and slammed the basketball with one hand without breaking stride or motion.

“I didn’t realize how high I was or how close I was to the basket, so I just flushed it in,” Poythress said.

The dunk moved the Cats lead to 46-36 with 12:58 left in the game, and the lead stayed in double digits for the remainder of the night.

Lost in the progress of Andrew Harrison is sophomore forward Willie Cauley-Stein, who produced one point, four fouls and one rebound in nine minutes of play.

Cauley-Stein struggled to handle the ball on offense, producing as many turnovers as shots.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with Willie,” Calipari said. “At the end of the game, I said, ‘look, we’re going at you. You have got to get going kid.’ He turned, and he fumbled. It didn’t get any better.”

Texas A&M junior forward Jamal Jones, who came into the game averaging over 20 points per game in conference play, was limited to 8 points on 3-of-12 shooting and was called for three fouls in the first half.

“He made the first three, and then I think they knew he was capable of scoring and they challenged (him),” Texas A&M head coach Billy Kennedy said. “They physically wore us down.”