Kentucky came out of the gate on fire, but lost his mojo.
As it was Senior Day at Rupp Arena, the Wildcats fell to the Florida Gators with a final score of 71-67. Kentucky reached a 26-16 lead in the middle of the first half as they started the 7-11 upstairs afternoon. However, “The cats would only shoot 12-37 the rest of the way, while Florida outscored them five in the second half to sneak in the win.
Davion Mintz led the way to Kentucky, collecting 21 points at 7-14 and 5-5 perfectly from the free throw line. Three of his Wildcat teammates also finished in double figures, BJ Boston (13 points), Isaiah Jackson (11) and Jacob Toppin (11) helped complete the scoring goals. The free throws kept Kentucky alive, finishing 25-29 in the charity.
Once Florida engaged an area defense in the second half, the Kentucky offensive stalled several times. Britain suffered several droughts that exceeded three minutes, turned the ball 15 times in total and eliminated only seven coins. Missed opportunities, including a 1-11 distance mark in the second half, made “Cats try to fight from a hole that turned out to be too deep.
Kentucky shot 9-27 overall in the final 20 minutes of action, while Florida went 10-19. Tre Mann was the engine for Florida, scoring 21 points, while the Gators shot over 52 percent from the floor and 47 percent from outside the arc. The cats are now falling to 7-8 in the SEC and beyond a potential double-goodbye for the upcoming conference tournament.