No. 6 Kentucky men’s basketball was embarrassed on the road inside Colonial Life Arena against South Carolina, losing 79-62.
The game featured numerous offensive woes for the Cats including shooting 30% from beyond the arch and missing 13 layups en route to a blowout defeat.
The Wildcats entered the game on the back of a 105-96 win over Georgia inside Rupp Arena that was best remembered for the debut of big man Zvonimir “Big Z” Ivišić.
Looking to continue their winning ways, the Cats brought out a familiar starting lineup of Justin Edwards, Antonio Reeves, D.J. Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw and Tre Mitchell.
Things started off slow for both teams, with the score standing at 4-2 after four minutes of play. In fact, Kentucky had made nearly the same number of substitutions as it had points scored.
Unfortunately for the Cats, while they continued to struggle to get hot, South Carolina showed up, jumping out to a lead.
Kentucky would be able to fight back into the game early and even see the game tied after 12 minutes.
Where South Carolina continued to apply the pressure on offense, the Cats instead went cold, struggling to connect from beyond the arch and even struggling to find successful layups in the contest.
With the struggles for the Cats, it was unsurprising that a late 3-pointer gave the Gamecocks an eight-point halftime advantage.
What was surprising was what happened coming out of the break.
With the halftime period in the books, Kentucky did not improve and instead began to struggle even worse.
What was once an eight point gap reached double digits and, with under eight points to play, was at nearly 20 points.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the gap would reach 20 points with under six minutes left to play.
While Kentucky would tease a potential comeback, the damage had already been done and the Cats were defeated by double digits against unranked competition for the second time this season.
Kentucky will return to action on Saturday, Jan. 27, inside Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to face the Arkansas Razorbacks. Tip-off against the Hogs is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN.
