LDN - Sports

No. 8 Kentucky cruises past Illinois-Chicago

[November 27, 2017] LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Six Wildcats scored in double figures, and Kentucky topped the century mark for the first time this season in a 107-73 win over Illinois-Chicago on Sunday night.

"I thought this was the closest we played to a 40-minute basketball game this year," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "That's good to see. But there's so many things we've got to figure out. A lot of scrimmaging to build these players into (a) more efficient team and more efficient individually and better with the ball."

Illinois-Chicago coach Steve McClain said, "I thought from watching them on film and watching them in person, they were really crisp. Everything they did was very sharp, crisp offensively. It created problems for us all over the place."

With the win, No. 8 Kentucky closed a busy November with a 6-1 mark. It was the Wildcats' seventh game in 16 days. By contrast, they play only six times during all of December.

"This has been a grind," Calipari said. "We have had how many games? In how many days? Sixteen days. And all freshmen. Youngest team maybe in the history of college basketball. I know the last 11 years it's the youngest team. But I tell you this, it may be the youngest team to ever try to do anything special."

Freshman forward Kevin Knox led the rout with 25 points, hitting 9 of 13 field-goal attempts and 7 of 10 free throws.

"I think everyone's been waiting for him to have a game like that," McClain said. "I think he's really hard to guard because you want to come out and shoot the gap on that pin-down, and yet when we started shooting that gap, he started coming underneath and posting us. Again, that's a credit to him, he's starting to figure out. 'OK, people are going to do this, how do I adjust?'"

Freshman guard Hamidou Diallo added 19 points for Kentucky on 8-of-11 shooting. Freshman forward P.J. Washington scored 17, freshman guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 14, freshman guard Quade Green had 12, and freshman forward Nick Richards tallied 11.

As a team, Kentucky had its best shooting night of the season. The Wildcats shot 66.7 percent in both halves, finishing at 42 of 63. They had 22 assists against 14 turnovers.

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Illinois-Chicago got 17 points from sophomore guard Godwin Boahen. Senior forward Tai Odiase had 15, sophomore forward Dikembe Dixson scored 14 and sophomore guard Dominique Matthews had 12.

As a team, UIC (2-3) shot 40.6 percent but had seven assists versus 21 turnovers.

"I knew what we were walking into," McClain said. "So you bring your team to this environment and go, 'This is reality and now how hard will you work to change that, so that if you get this opportunity again you'll be better for it?' I thought we had a lot of good things in the second half, we got some good offense going, and it'll be things we can build on."

Kentucky set a season high for points in a half, scoring 52 for a 17-point advantage at intermission. However, it was a short-lived record, broken in the second half with the Wildcats scoring 55.

Kentucky hit 20 of 30 first-half shots despite missing 4 of 5 attempts from 3-point range.

Knox led the way with 15 first-half points. Diallo added 11 and Gilgeous-Alexander 10.

Boahen paced UIC with 12 points before the break. The Flames shot 41.4 percent (12 of 29) prior to halftime but committed 12 turnovers.

NOTES: The win was the 700th of Kentucky coach John Calipari's career. The university qualified the feat as "on-court wins," as the NCAA ordered 38 wins during his time as Memphis coach vacated. ... Kentucky is now 220-4 all-time under Calipari when holding a double-digit lead at some point in the game. ... KenPom.com ranks Kentucky the least experienced team in the country this season. Last year, that honor went to UIC.

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