LEXINGTON, Ky. – At the end of the final media timeout, Florida and Kentucky broke their huddles. The Wildcats, up just two with less than four minutes to play, were set to inbound from their baseline with three seconds on the shot clock. Here was the moment the UF defense, flummoxed throughout Saturday's Southeastern Conference opener and bedeviled by the Wildcats' 3-point shooting, had its chance for a potential game-altering stop after fighting to get back in the game.
 
Point guard Lamont Butler took the ball from the official and tossed it in to forward Andrew Carr. Butler, like he'd surely been taught since middle school, immediately slid into an open spot in the corner. Carr, like he's surely been taught since middle school, made the easy pass to the inbounder, always the most dangerous player in that situation. 
 
Butler, left wide open, set his feet for an unguarded corner 3. Bang. Wildcats back up five.
 
"I think we got a little lost," UF coach Todd Golden said later. "They just made a simple play." 
 
It was that kind of day for the sixth-ranked Gators, whose defense was carved up inside and bombed over from outside by the 10^th-ranked Wildcats, who shot nearly 58 percent for the game, drained 14 3-pointers and had a half-dozen players finish in double-figure scoring on the way to a 106-100 victory in the Southeastern Conference opener for both teams at sold-out Rupp Arena.
 
Reserve fifth-year guard Koby Brea scored 23 points, with all but two coming on his seven 3-pointers, each of which felt like a puncture wound to the collective UF gut. Brea, the transfer from Dayton and top 3-point shooter in the country the last two seasons, made seven of nine from deep (a couple with defenders in his face), but was hardly alone in the damage-doing. Six different Wildcats made at least one three on the way to finishing 14 of 29 from the arc against a Florida defense that began the day ranked No. 2 in the country in defending the arc at a lock-down 26.6 percent.  UK point guard Lamont Butler, transfer from San Diego State, was one of five others for the balanced Wildcats (12-2, 1-0) who scored between 19 and 14 points. Kentucky's five starters, plus the red-hot Brea, combined to make 35 of 57 shots and 13 of 24 from distance. 
 
The loss halted the second-best start in program history for the Gators (13-1, 0-1) and sent them back to the ol' drawing board with a defense that thrived in non-league play and came to the Commonwealth ranked 16^thnationally in efficiency. 
 
They left the state No. 22 in total defense and plummeted all the way to 36^th vs. the 3.
 
"It's tough when you put up a hundred and allow the other team to put up a hundred-and-whatever," said Florida senior guard Walter Clayton Jr., who was outstanding in his own right on offense, leading all scorers with 33 points, tying his career high, with six 3s. "When you do that, you're doing something wrong defensively. The coaches gave us a game plan and we didn't execute it as players."
 
A key part of the plan was to not let Brea or wild-card wing Jaxson Robinson get comfortable on offense. So, how'd that work out? 
 
Before the end of the first half, the Wildcats vanquished what was an early 11-point UF lead with a run of 16 consecutive points, with Brea draining a trio of 3s on his to 14 points and a five-point Kentucky lead.

"He was magical tonight, wasn't he?" said Kentucky coach Mark Pope, the former UK standout (by way of Brigham Young) in his first season since replacing Hall-of-Famer John Calipari. "I don't know, you are hard-pressed to make a real cogent argument that he's not the best shooter in the country, it's just ridiculous."

No knowledgeable fan would try. 

After Brea's hot streak (his first one), the Gators settled down and clawed back to tie the game, before Robinson scored 10 consecutive points to help take the Cats to the locker room ahead 52-42. 
 
"Just let 'em get whatever they wanted. We didn't take anything away from them," said UF grad guard Alijah Martin, who had 26 points with five 3s to help his team stay in it. "We let them be comfortable. We let them do what they do. We let their shooters shoot. I think we beat ourselves. We're a much better defensive team and we didn't display it today."
 
The second half started with 3s from Clayton and Martin, as UF slowly trimmed the margin to five. Then to four. Then three times to one, the last instance coming on a Martin corner 3 with 12:05 to play to make it 70-69.  Then came 10 more consecutive UK points, the first six by leading scorer Otega Oweh (16 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals), to surge back in front by 11 with less than minutes to go, as Rupp resoundingly rejoiced. 
 
Yet, the Gators, with no quit in them, managed to cut it to two. 
 
Enter Butler for his deflating inbound 3. 
 
"Every time we made a run and had a little momentum, I thought they stepped up and made some big-time winning plays, big shots, and just kept us at bay in those moments," Golden said. "I thought we battled pretty hard. Obviously, we guarded poorly today, but we did some other really good things." 
 
Like rebound, where the Gators had a 38-30 edge (sophomore forward Alex Condon had 10), including 15-9 margin on the offensive end on the way to 31 second-chance points (UK had just 12). UF turned the ball over just nine times, but the Cats capitalized big-time on the miscues, outscoring the Gators off turnovers 20-4, including 15-0 in the first half. Florida, which shot a robust 55 percent and made a dozen 3s in one of the nation's most hostile venues, attacked the Kentucky defense enough to get to the free-throw line 35 times, but only made 22 (65.2 percent), with Clayton (team-high 90.9 percent coming in) and Martin (81.6) combining to make just 12 of their 20.

Their chances were there.  
 
"Some good things for us to take out of this game," said Golden, whose team scored the most points against Kentucky in the 153-game series history that dates to 1927. "But going on the road in SEC play, we've got to find a way to defend better."
 
Even on the simple plays. 

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chris@gators.ufl.edu