Quick recap: UK wins SEC Tournament Championship

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It wasn’t really supposed to be that easy.

A 70-54 win over the team that had won the SEC regular season title, had the Player and Coach of the Year, and was playing without a semi-injured player seemed surreal.

UK built a five-point halftime lead behind aggressive play. UK scored 11 points at the free throw line; Florida had zero, and only took one free-throw shot in the half.

That lead wasn’t safe. Florida had been a second-half team all tournament. The Gators had come back from similar deficits — down five to Tennessee and down eight to Vanderbilt at halftime — for easy wins. But a 7-0 run coming out of the half surged UK forward.

From there, it was UK’s defense that stamped out any thoughts of a comeback. Florida went without a point over a five-minute stretch at one time; even though UK was in the middle of a similar drought, it took the clock that much closer to a championship final horn.

Up 10 with two minutes left, Florida started to foul. UK made 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch to win the SEC Tournament championship.

Darius Miller was named the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament. Miller, Brandon Knight and Josh Harrellson were named to the All-Tournament team.