LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Corey Brewer scored 16 points and top-ranked Florida held off No. 20 Kentucky 64-61 on Saturday night for its 16th straight victory.
Ramel Bradley missed a 3-pointer that could have tied it as time expired, sealing the Gators’ fifth win in a row against Kentucky.
Florida (23-2, 10-0 Southeastern Conference) was up 63-54 with 20 seconds left before Bradley hit consecutive 3s to cut the margin to three. Prior to that, Kentucky had made just one of 19 attempts from beyond the arc and was threatening the school-worst 1-of-19 performance set in 2002 against South Carolina.
It had been 20 years since the Wildcats, college basketball’s winningest program, lost five times in a row to one opponent. Tennessee was the last to do it from 1975-77. No team has beaten Kentucky in six straight.
Randolph Morris had 18 points for the Wildcats (18-6, 7-3).
A record crowd of 24,465 was hoping to see Kentucky’s 400th victory at Rupp Arena. Instead, the Gators won back-to-back games in the building for the first time since 1988-89.
During practices this week, Kentucky players watched footage of a game between the two teams in 2003 in which Florida came in No. 1 but instead was walloped by the Wildcats 70-55.
This one was far different, both in the outcome and the margin.
Taureen Green nailed a 3-pointer with 8 minutes to go in the first half that gave the Gators their biggest lead at 30-14. But Kentucky followed seconds later with a 10-0 run, pulling within four on a jumper by Bobby Perry.
Green hit his third 3-pointer in three attempts to stop the run, and Jonathan Mitchell made a layup just before halftime to stretch the Gators’ lead to 36-27.
The Gators kept the Wildcats at a distance until early in the second half, when Florida big men Joakim Noah and Al Horford picked up their third fouls. That’s when Morris went to work.
Morris scored three straight buckets for the Wildcats midway through the second half and used an off-balanced jumper to cut the Florida lead to 43-40. Florida misfired on several possessions to keep Kentucky close.
Backup Florida center Chris Richard had a dunk less than 8 minutes into the game to set a season high with 11 points.
Kentucky held the nation’s field-goal percentage leader to 47 percent, but the Wildcats managed to make just 38 percent of their shots – and 14 percent from 3-point range.
