WHAT HAPPENED: Senior forward
Oscar Tshiebwe scored 25 points on a near-perfect Wednesday night of shooting and visiting Kentucky fended off a series of hard charges from undermanned Florida to leave Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center with a 82-74 victory. Tshiebwe, the 2022 NCAA and Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, took advantage of UF's missing standout forward
Colin Castleton, who was a blowout winner in their individual matchup in UK's win earlier this month at Lexington. Not this time. Tshiebwe tortured the Florida low-post backup tandem of
Jason Jitoboh and
Aleks Szymczyk connecting on 12 of 13 field-goal attempts (that's 92.3 percent), showing an array of moves in the post and touch on his jumper just above the free-throw line. UK senior guard
Antonio Reeves added 16 points, while senior forward
Jacob Toppin had 19 points and 11 rebounds and freshman forward
Chris Livingston had 10 points and 15 rebounds, including a late dagger board on the offensive end to help put the game away. The Wildcats, winners of three straight, shot 53 percent from the floor, 58 in the second half. The Gators, in losing a second straight, were led by a career-high 24 points from freshman guard
Riley Kugel, who went 4-for-6 from distance, plus 16 more from sophomore wing
Kowacie Reeves. They shot 50 overall for the game and made eight 3-pointers, but could neither keep pace with the Cats in the overall shooting category nor (especially) on the glass, where Kentucky bombed the home team 40-21, including 13-2 on the offensive end where the Cats outscored the Gators 15-0 in second-chance points. The Gators erased deficits of 15 in the first half and seven in the second half, both times taking brief one-point leads. A Reeves 3-pointer with nine minutes to go tied the game at 59, but Kentucky -- unlike the first half -- never cooled off. From there, the Cats scored eight straight points on four buckets, all on driving banks in close. UK worked the lead out to 11 with just under five minutes left, but Florida didn't quit. UF scored nine straight points to draw close within two, 74-72, after two
Kyle Lofton (9 points, 5 assists) free throws with 1:12 left, then got the stop it needed on defense. At least initially. Livingston grabbed the offensive rebound, put the ball in the bucket, got fouled and hit the free throw to put the Cats up five. That was as close as Florida got.
Freshman guard Riley Kugel (24) on the attack Wednesday night.
WHAT IT MEANS: Would've been hard to imagine any other outcome, given the circumstances (as in the Castleton void in the post). The Gators now move to .500 on the season and likely will be slight underdogs in the next two games (both on the road) and a favorite at home in the season finale. Florida has not posted a losing final record since 2014-15, when the Gators went 16-17 in the final season under Coach
Billy Donovan. The loss was the Gators' ninth in their last 10 against the Wildcats, including five straight at home.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: We'll keep updating Kugel's stats during his run of six straight double-digit games. Over that span, the 6-5 rookie has averaged 17.2 points and shot 54.4 percent from the floor.
STAGGERING STATISTIC: Fifteen to zero in second-chance points is something no team is going to recover from. It's even more maddening in a two-point game with a minute to go.
UP NEXT: Florida (14-14, 7-8) is back on the SEC road Saturday night to take on scorching-hot Vanderbilt (15-13, 8-7), which took a five-game winning streak -- the program' longest since opening the 2015-16 season with five victories -- into Wednesday night's road game at league cellar-dweller LSU only to lose 84-77, giving the Tigers just their second win of the season. The Commodores defeated the Gators 88-80 at Gainesville on Feb. 11, thanks to 12 makes from the 3-point line.
