LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Florida kept sticking
to its strength by shooting behind the arc. It turned out to be the
eighth-ranked Gators biggest problem.
Kenny Boynton led Florida
with 18 points, but the team with the most 3-pointers in the nation this
season went 6 of 27 from 3-point range in a 78-58 loss to No. 1
Kentucky on Tuesday night.
"I don't know if we
necessarily attacked their defense great in terms of with a high level
of intelligence," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "But, I did think
that we had some decent looks."
Not enough to contend with
the overwhelming Wildcats, who got 13 points and 13 rebounds from
freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist to easily pass its toughest conference
test to date.
"They are very, very good.
There is not one thing you do necessarily against them that is a formula
to win," Donovan said. "Certainly shooting the ball well on the road
helps, we didn't shoot it well."
The Gators (19-5, 7-2
Southeastern Conference) shot 34.9 percent from the field overall as the
Wildcats (24-1, 10-0) won their 49th straight at home.
Doron Lamb scored 18 points
and freshman Anthony Davis added 16 for Kentucky, which won its 16th
straight overall and ended Florida's run of seven consecutive wins.
"Our biggest strength is
making 3s and we weren't making them," Florida freshman Bradley Beal
said. "Our defense was terrible so, really, it was an overall totally
bad game."
Florida scored the first
two baskets of the second half to cut it to 38-30, but Kentucky answered
with an 11-0 run sparked when freshman Marquis Teague and Darius Miller
hit consecutive 3-pointers.
Beal then drove to the hoop
only to have Davis reject his shot and Davis swatted another from
Patric Young on the possession for good measure.
Miller added another jumper
and Kidd-Gilchrist spun, hit a basket and was fouled. He completed the
three-point play that made it 49-30 as Florida missed eight straight
shots before snapping the skid.
"They know that we are a
3-point shooting team and they took our best strength away from us,"
said Beal, who finished with 14 points. "We have to find other ways to
be able to put the ball in the basket, and we didn't do that."
Florida insisted before the
game all the pressure was on the Wildcats, but this group that starts
three freshmen and two sophomores doesn't appear to get rattled easily.
Their only blemish is a one-point loss in December at Indiana.
One of the last remaining
questions for a team that continues to believe it can play for a
national championship in just under two months had been the quality of
opponents the Wildcats had faced after not meeting a ranked team in over
a month.
Kentucky answered it emphatically.
The lead reached 20 points when Lamb buried a 3 from the left corner with 11:27 left and by as many as 21 late.
Boynton said Kentucky is the best team in the SEC.
"They've proven it. They've
beaten good teams by 20," Boynton said. "We just have to get better.
We've got time before play them again. We just have to come out and
work."
Florida would close the gap to eight points to start the second half, but never got back within striking distance.
"Our whole defensive
principles were wrong throughout the whole game," Beal said. "That's not
the way we play. We played terrible."
