Kentucky torched the nets against one of the best 3-point defenses in college basketball.
Ever since the 3-point shot was introduced to the game of basketball, it’s changed the way the game is played. The 3-point shot is a game-changer, and it was certainly that in the Kentucky Wildcats’ 106-100 win over No. 6 Florida Saturday afternoon at Rupp Arena.
Florida entered Saturday at 13-0, one of just three undefeated teams in the country entering Saturday.
Led by Koby Brea’s seven 3s, the Wildcats shot 14/29 from 3-point range to overcome an early 11-point deficit in the first half. The Wildcats used three of their 14 3-pointers on a 16-0 run to erase the 26-15 deficit, and they never trailed the rest of the game.
Jaxson Robinson and Andrew Carr also hit two 3s each. Otega Oweh, Lamont Butler, and Travis Perry had one 3 each as Kentucky saw six players score in double figures in Saturday’s win.
Butler led the Wildcats with eight assists, and Kentucky has 25 assists on 37 made field goals.
This was easily Kentucky’s best 3-point shooting performance under Mark Pope, who has continuously stressed — sometimes even begged — his team to let it rip from deep, and boy did they ever in this one.
Percentage-wise, this was Kentucky’s second-best game from deep so far this season, trailing only the 11/21 (52.4%) outing vs. the Louisville Cardinals. However, Louisville has one of the worst perimeter defenses in college basketball. They currently rank 272nd in opponent 3-point shooting percentage (35.6%) and 52nd in KenPom efficiency.
Even after the Gators, ranked seventh at KenPom, allowed Kentucky to shoot 48.3%, they still rank 22nd nationally in 3-point defense (28.6%).
Given how drastically better Florida is than Louisville when it comes to 3-point defense, this was clearly Kentucky’s best shooting performance of the season.
Making this even more impressive was Kentucky shot a combined 14/50 from deep over its last two games.
This is also Pope’s third win over a top 10 team, and first at Rupp Arena, in his first season as the Wildcats head coach.
Kentucky is now 11-2 (1-0, SEC) and will take on the Georgia Bulldogs on Tuesday night on the road in Athens, Georgia. Tip-off is at 7 PM ET on SEC Network.
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