No. 5 Kentucky will look to extend a five-game winning streak Saturday when Florida visits Lexington, Ky., for a Southeastern Conference clash.
The Gators (16-8, 6-5 SEC) are riding their own hot streak with four straight wins against Oklahoma State, Missouri, Ole Miss and Georgia. Florida topped the visiting Bulldogs at home on Wednesday.
For the Wildcats (20-4, 9-2), their latest victory came on the road Tuesday at South Carolina, 86-76. Kentucky won despite playing far from its best. The Wildcats were outrebounded on the offensive glass, 20-8, and allowed the Gamecocks to score 23 points off 16 Kentucky turnovers.
“This just shows that we’ve proven we can win in multiple ways,” forward Keion Brooks Jr. said. “We didn’t do anything too different, we just kept playing. We just weathered the storm.”
Brooks had 15 points and nine rebounds in the victory for Kentucky. Oscar Tshiebwe led the team in scoring and rebounding with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Sahvir Wheeler dished out a game-high 11 assists.
Despite some of Kentucky’s mistakes, coach John Calipari looked on the bright side after the win.
“It’s a great game for us, we need to be in games like this. There was a stretch, Sahvir did not play well. TyTy (Washington) struggled some,” Calipari said. “I’m just glad we’re done playing (South Carolina).”
Saturday will be the first of two meetings Kentucky has with Florida this season. The Wildcats and Gators will face off again on March 5 in Gainesville, Fla.
The Gators have been led this season by Colin Castleton, who recently returned to the lineup after nursing a shoulder injury. In Florida’s past two wins, he’s tallied a combined 30 points, 16 rebounds and seven blocks. On the season, he’s averaging 15.4 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game.
Castleton briefly left the Georgia game after aggravating the shoulder injury but returned later on. He is expected to play against Kentucky.
The Bulldogs cut Florida’s lead down to three points late on Wednesday, but the Gators pulled away for a 72-63 win. Gators coach Mike White was pleased with Florida’s fight.
“(It’s) a mental toughness that we’ve been talking about all year,” White said. “I thought at times, we played with a lot of edge. I thought we started with a lot of edge with the right mental approach. We’ve got to be better finishing, of course. We’re fortunate, man.”
Against the Bulldogs, Florida was led by Myreon Jones with a season-high 23 points. A transfer from Penn State, Saturday will mark his first time playing against Kentucky and his first appearance in Rupp Arena.
–Field Level Media
