LEXINGTON, Ky. — The opening minutes weren’t pretty, and the competition wasn’t great, but Kentucky got back in the win column Thursday night.
The Wildcats turned the page on their first loss of the season with a 106-63 victory over South Carolina State, a major underdog serving as a bounce-back opponent for UK, sandwiched in between two marquee games on the non-conference schedule.
It wasn’t as easy as expected in the early going.
Kentucky jumped out to an 11-3 lead, but the Bulldogs stuck around for much of the first half. The Cats’ advantage didn’t reach double digits until 6:51 to go before halftime. By that point, all 11 scholarship players had checked into the game. Things opened up from there, with Kentucky building its lead from six points to 23 points over a matter of five minutes.
By halftime, 10 Wildcats had scored, and the only one who hadn’t — point guard Sahvir Wheeler — had dished out five assists with zero turnovers.
One sustained low point for the Cats’ in the first half: 3-point shooting. UK made just 2 of 11 attempts from deep and missed seven in a row going into halftime. That was quickly rectified out of the break. Kentucky was 5 for 7 from 3-point range to start the second half, and the lead had reached 30 points with 15 minutes left in the game.
UK was 10 for 24 on 3s for the night. Walk-on Brennan Canada nailed a corner 3 with 1:00 left to put the Cats up 47 points.
CJ Fredrick led Kentucky with 17 points, going 3 for 7 from 3-point range. Chris Livingston was next in the scoring column with 13 points. Cason Wallace and Lance Ware had 12 points each, with Antonio Reeves adding 11 points (and going 3 for 7 on 3s).
Wheeler had just six points — going 1 for 3 from the floor — but he dished out 10 assists and committed zero turnovers. He made his first start of the season Thursday after coming off the bench the last two games and missing UK’s season opener with a knee injury.
Every scholarship player scored at least six points and played at least nine minutes.
Oscar Tshiebwe came off the bench for his 2022-23 Rupp Arena debut, entering the game with 13:33 left in the first half to appreciative applause from the UK crowd. He grabbed two rebounds in his first 51 seconds on the court and made a highlight out of his first home points of the season, intercepting a baseline out of bounds pass and taking it the length of the floor for a dunk. Tshiebwe extended his arms like an airplane as he ran back on defense, much to the delight of the UK faithful.
The reigning national player of the year tallied six points and seven rebounds despite playing just 14 minutes. He was on the court for 34 minutes in UK’s double-overtime loss to Michigan State two nights earlier — his season debut after being sidelined for a month with a knee injury — and his playing time was surely being monitored with UK set for a game at No. 2 Gonzaga on Sunday.
Kentucky was playing a South Carolina State team that — on paper — is considered to be one of the worst in the country.
The Bulldogs came into Thursday rated by KenPom.com at No. 347 nationally (out of 363 Division I teams) and ranked No. 341 in offensive efficiency and No. 351 in defensive efficiency. South Carolina State is now 0-4 with the loss to UK, and its previous game ended in a 25-point defeat to Duquesne, a team that Kentucky had beaten by 25 points just three days earlier.
UK was a 41-point favorite Thursday night. The Cats won by 43 points.
Kentucky’s next game
Up next on UK’s 2022-23 schedule is the much-anticipated trip to Spokane for a battle with Gonzaga on Sunday. This will be a meeting of two top-five teams — the Zags are No. 2 in the latest AP poll, with Kentucky at No. 4 in those rankings — though both sides are probably due for a drop following losses to Texas and Michigan State, respectively, earlier this week.
Those defeats might have taken a little luster off this weekend’s game, but Gonzaga and UK are both fully expected to be in the Final Four picture as this season progresses. The updated CBS Sports rankings Thursday had the Zags at No. 5 and the Cats at No. 7.
This will be just the second meeting between the two programs, with UK beating Gonzaga, 80-72, in the 2002 Maui Invitational. The teams agreed to a six-year series earlier this year, and the Zags will play in Rupp Arena next season.
Sunday’s game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.
