NCAA Basketball Roundup: Duke wins rivalry clash, Gonzaga falls to Saint Mary’s

Kentucky defeats Florida in key SEC win

After a non-convincing victory at Ole Miss earlier in the week, Kentucky was back at home against Florida, a team that defeated Tennessee to keep its at-large hopes alive. Both programs are currently on the bubble but the Wildcats are in better shape, though neither could really afford a loss.

It was Kentucky was got the early lead and was able to hold the Gators at arms’ length the entire time. Despite a late surge to keep the fans from leaving early, the Wildcats got the 72-67 victory. Colin Castleton won his center matchup by a mile, scoring a game-high 25 points.

On the other hand, Oscar Tshiebwe had arguably the worst NCAA Basketball game of his career. He finished with four points on 2/14 shooting before fouling out at the end. He did have 15 rebounds but the Wildcats, who have been criticized for relying too much on the big man to succeed, got 17 points and 10 rebounds from forward Jacob Toppin and 20 from freshman Cason Wallace. CJ Fredrick made a trio of three-pointers in the game as well.

Kentucky isn’t going to have the prettiest of offenses and won’t blow many teams out. But they’ve now won 6 of 7 games since that awful home loss to South Carolina. They’ve handled business as of late, even if it looks different than expected.