Jan. 31, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Quotes | Photo Gallery
Team Records and Series Notes
– Kentucky is 16-6 overall, 5-2 in the Southeastern Conference.
– South Carolina is 16-4 overall, 5-2 in league play.
– Kentucky leads the series, 41-8. UK leads 21-2 in games played in Lexington, with South Carolina’s only other win here occurring in 1997.
– Kentucky returns to action Tuesday night at home vs. Mississippi State. The game is at 7 p.m. ET and will be regionally televised by Raycom Sports.
First-Half Notes
– UK used the starting lineup of Michael Porter, Jodie Meeks, Ramon Harris, Perry Stevenson and Patrick Patterson for the 13th time this season.
– With UK leading 19-14, South Carolina went on a 15-1 run for a 29-20 lead.
– DeAndre Liggins’ three-pointer at the buzzer extended UK’s streak of 695 consecutive games with a three and also gave the Wildcats a 37-36 lead at intermission.
Second-Half Notes
– UK spurted to a 10-point lead at 54-44 (UK’s biggest lead of the game), but SC rallied with a 13-0 run to go ahead 63-58.
– Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson scored UK’s first 21 points of the second half until Darius Miller scored with 8:15 remaining.
– UK went back ahead, 68-66, on a follow-up dunk by Perry Stevenson with four minutes to go.
– The lead changed hands five more times after that until Devan Downey hit a fade-away jumper to put South Carolina ahead 78-77 with 3.2 seconds left.
Team Notes
– Kentucky shot 52.1 percent from the field. It is the 12th time in 22 games this season that the Wildcats have made at least half of their shots.
– This marked the first time in almost four years that UK played a game decided by one point. The last one-pointer was on March 12, 2005, a 79-78 overtime win over LSU in the SEC Tournament.
Individual Game Notes
– After scoring just two points in the first half, Jodie Meeks finished with 20.
— It is his ninth-straight 20-point game.
— Meeks hit a three-pointer in his 23rd consecutive game, including every game this season.
— He has made multiple threes in 16 straight games.
— He has made at least three threes in nine straight games.
– Patrick Patterson tallied 28 points, his ninth 20-point game of the season, and his most ever in an SEC game.
– Perry Stevenson had four blocked shots, the 10th time in his career he has had at least three rejections in one contest. He also tied his career high for assists with four.
