Oscar Tshiebwe collected a double-double and four of his teammates scored in double figures Friday night as No. 10 Kentucky pulled away after a slow start to rout North Florida 86-52 in Lexington, Ky.
Tshiebwe finished with 12 points and 16 rebounds for the Wildcats (5-1), who won their fifth straight game since a season-opening loss to Duke. Dontaie Allen and TyTy Washington Jr. each scored 14 points, while Sahvir Wheeler and Daimion Collins added 12 points apiece.
Kentucky trailed 16-14 with less than eight minutes left in the first half, but the Wildcats outscored the Ospreys 23-7 over the half’s remainder and then wore them out in the second half with superior athletic ability.
The Wildcats bounced back from their slow start to hit 47.4 percent of their field-goal attempts, doing most of their damage inside. They outrebounded North Florida 50-33 and enjoyed a 48-24 advantage in points in the paint.
Jadyn Parker came off the bench to score 10 points for the Ospreys (1-6), who entered the game as one of the top 3-point shooting teams in Division I. However, the team that bills itself as the “Birds of Trey” made just 7 of 31 (22.6 percent) from behind the arc against a taller, quicker foe.
Still, North Florida led for nearly 8 1/2 minutes of the first half, owning a 12-7 advantage at one point. That was before Kentucky pressed the figurative X button and blew it open. Collins dunked to start a 15-7 run that Washington finished with a 3-pointer for a 31-21 lead at the 2:40 mark.
Tshiebwe flexed his muscles inside over the last minute, collecting a stick-back and then turning Washington’s feed into a jumper that enabled the Wildcats to take a 37-23 advantage into halftime.
The margin reached 20-plus for the first time when Washington canned a 3-pointer with 14:15 left in the game, making it 52-30. With just nine players available due to injuries and illness, Kentucky kept pouring it on, boosting its lead as high 37 points in the last minute.
–Field Level Media
