Kentucky Wildcats batter Chattanooga Mocs 87-62: NCAA Basketball Recap (Part 1)
Last week, the Kentucky Wildcats were handed their first defeat of the tournament by Indiana Hoosiers in a nail biter.
However, coming into Saturday night, the college basketball elite proved their mental toughness by coming back strong and humiliating Chattanooga Mocs 87-62, to improve their record to 9-1. What made the win all the more significant
was that they pulled it off without the services of their star forward Terrence Jones, who dislocated his finger midway through the first half and watched the remaining game from the bench.
Although it was a professional performance from the side, but their coach John Calipari wasn’t too satisfied with the overall performance of his team.
"We just have a long way to go. What do we have to do to get guys to understand, let's just be a vicious team? Let's go out and fight, and we're just not doing that right now. That game got rough again, and we had some guys that
just ran for the hills. You can't."
He had a point.
Wildcats failed to score from the free throw line and the two point range on many instances, which is not a pleasing site for any coach, however they covered for it by shooting brilliantly from the three point range and drilled
their season high 12 three’s in this game.
Doron Lamb paced them with game high 24 points on 4 for 9 shooting from the downtown. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist was also phenomenal and pounded 17 points, dished out 6 assists and pulled down 8 rebounds while Anthony Davis completed
a double-double by scoring 14 points and forcing a mammoth 18 rebounds. Darius Miller, who came off the bench late also chipped in with 12.
For the Mocs, only two players managed to end with scores in double figures. Drazen Zlovaric marshalled them with 15 points on 7 for 13 from the floor and also forced 9 rebounds. Ricky Taylor had 11 points on a 3 for 4 from the
charity stripe and 2 for 3 from the downtown.
The shooting from the floor stood out as the difference between the two sides in the end. The Mocs managed just 1/3rd of their shots from the floor, while the Wildcats, although erratic at times, still managed a decent
48.5 percent.
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