GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For openers, rumors of Kentucky's demise are greatly exaggerated.

The Florida Gators, meanwhile, clearly have some problems to deal with and the Wildcats exposed them in a 76-58 battering Saturday at Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center. 

UK shot 59 percent, including a blistering 66.7 in the second half, and used an early run after intermission to build an 18-point lead and went on to run the Gators out of their building. Grad-transfer guard Davion Mintz and freshman guard Brandon Boston Jr. scored 13 points each, reserve guard Keion Brooks Jr., cleared from calf injury and playing his first game since last season, came off the bench to score 12 points and grab six rebounds, while grad-transfer forward Oliver Sarr threw in 10 points. Together, the quartet paced the Wildcats (4-6, 3-0) to a third straight victory and further distanced themselves from a 1-6 start that marked the program's worst since 1925-26. 

"For the most part, they had their way with us offensively and came in here and locked us up as well," UF coach Mike White said. "Credit those guys." 

The Gators (5-3, 2-2) shot just 37.5 percent from the floor, only 35.7 after intermission, while the Cats were making 14 of their 21 field-goal tries on the way to winning the points-in-the-paint stat, 34-22, while also forcing the home team into 16 turnovers that led to 25 points. UK had 18 assists on 29 made baskets, a testament to its ball movement. 

"They came out and just punched us in the mouth," Florida point guard Tyree Appleby said. 

Fourth-year junior forward Anthony Duruji led UF with 15 points, while Appleby, the fourth-year junior making his first start as a Gator, added 10 points. UF's top three active scorers coming into the game — guard Tre Mann (14.6 points per game), guard Scottie Lewis (12.3) and forward Colin Castleton (11.9) — combined for only 15 points on 6-for-21 shooting, with Lewis scoring two points for a second consecutive game. 

Florida, on the heels of Tuesday's 86-71 loss at Alabama, has now lost two straight by a combined 33 points. 

"This is an improving Kentucky team we're all watching," White said. "I do think we're better than that, but they were much better than us tonight, to the say the least."
 
Florida came out of the gate in a really good rhythm, jumping to a 10-5 lead by making four of its first five field-goal attempts, including a pair of 3-pointers. Along the way, though, a baseline dunk by Boston tore the Kentucky net. Officials halted play to change the string. It took more than 10 minutes, with the Gators actually doing a mini-warmup before heading back on the floor. 

They probably needed to loosen up more. 

Out of the stoppage, Kentucky scored the next 10 points, with backup guard Dontaie Allen working open in the half court and dropping back-to-back 3s, as the Cats went up 13-10. Florida never led again, though managing to tie the score at 17 and 24, before the Cats used an 11-3 run to open an eight-point edge and eventually led 35-29 at the break. 

After the two teams swapped buckets to open the second period, Kentucky took off on a 14-2 spree finished by back-to-back back-breaking 3-pointers from Mintz and point guard Devin Askew. 

"I know there were probably some people that put dirt on the coffin. We pushed the coffin open and said, 'You ain't putting that dirt on this,' " UK  coach John Calipari said of his rejuvenated bunch. "We've got good kids. I'm proud of these kids.

The score was 51-33 with 15 minutes to go. That 18-point lead ballooned to as many as 25 with eight minutes left before the Gators showed some spunk by trimming it to something that, at the very least, was a little more cosmetically acceptable. Though not much. 

The final 18-point margin still was the program's most lopsided home loss since falling 68-50 to Alabama on Feb. 18, 2018. 
 
"I thought they were really good with their interior offense, their interior passing and [against]  some of the defensive looks we gave them — and their finishing ability at the rim was high level, of course," White said of the Cats. "They withstood our pressure the entire game, handled the ball really well and executed what they wanted to execute." 

The Gators, on the other hand, shot a poor percentage for a second straight game and allowed an opponent to set a tone around the basket. 

"They were just better than us," Appleby said. "We just have to get back to practice, get better and move forward."

The narrative was pretty much the same four days earlier after the one-sided loss at Alabama. 

There's more work to do.