Kentucky basketball can't overcome early Florida surge in senior day loss
· Yahoo Sports
LEXINGTON — With less than a minute remaining in Saturday's first half, Otega Oweh — as he'd already done five times to that point, four successfully — rose to let a 3 fly through the air.
The ball didn't get far.
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Florida's Isaiah Brown blocked the shot, tipped it to himself and went the other way. There wasn't much Oweh could do.
Besides, he'd already done so much.
Oweh accounted for more than half of Kentucky basketball's points — 17 of 32 — in the opening 20 minutes. One problem: He outscored the rest of his teammates by two. The other issue: Florida had 49 points at intermission.
It didn't get any better in the second half, as the Wildcats couldn't engineer one of their patented comebacks, losing the regular-season finale, 84-77, at Rupp Arena.
The one-sided setback spoiled senior night for Kentucky (19-12, 10-8 SEC). It was merely an extension of recent dominance for Florida (25-6, 16-2), which capped the regular season on an 11-game win streak.
Its supremacy also speaks to the extent to which it pummeled Kentucky in both meetings this season.
The Gators never trailed in a 92-83 victory in Gainesville, Florida, on Feb. 14.
The Gators never trailed in Saturday's wire-to-wire win, either. Florida ran off 11 points before the hosts even got on the board. The Wildcats made a push, at least, cutting the deficit to one point on a pair of occasions just past the midway point of the first half. But once UK trimmed Florida's advantage to 20-19, the visitors went on a 13-0 run in the next two minutes to put the game on ice.
The final margin of defeat merely papered over what was a decisive win for the Gators.
All the Wildcats avoided on this day was the embarassment of suffering a 20-point loss — it was trending that direction at multiple junctures of the second half — on senior day.
This story will be updated.
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Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at [email protected] and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball vs Florida score, Gators spoil senior day for UK