LOUISVILLE, Ky. – None of the Wildcats, among Kentucky’s active rotation, had ever won an NCAA Tournament game by more than seven points. Check another first off the list.It may not have started how many were thinking it would, but it certainly got to that point by the final buzzer as Kentucky cruised to a 79-56 victory over 16th seeded Hampton in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.”It was a good win,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “I didn’t like how we started the game. I didn’t quite like how we finished the game. But it is one o’clock at night, and we had an overtime game where the guys were hanging out in the locker room for an hour and a half. So I’m going to chalk it up to that and move on.”The game Calipari was referring to was the Cincinnati-Purdue matchup that occurred directly before the Cats’ game, pushing an originally scheduled 9:40 p.m. tipoff back to 10:18 p.m.The late night start was no problem for freshman forward Karl-Anthony Towns, who shined for Kentucky (35-0) by scoring a career-high 21 points, grabbing a team-high tying 11 rebounds and blocking three shots. It was the team-leading eighth double-double this season for the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year, and further cemented his role as one of Kentucky’s go-to scorers.”(He) played special,” freshman guard Devin Booker said. “I’m not surprised at all. I know what Karl’s capable of and everyone’s seeing it now, that he’s basically unstoppable down there.”Facing a team of Hampton’s height, whose tallest player was 6-foot-9, Towns showed off his patented baby hook, grabbed rebounds over others, and overpowered just about everyone in his way.”Karl played really good,” Cauley-Stein said. “Had really good touch around the rim today. We could just throw it to him every time. Until they start double-teaming or doing something we were going to continue to throw it in there.”The largest margin of victory in the NCAA Tournament for Kentucky dating back to the 2013 season was UK’s seven-point victory over Kansas State in last year’s second round. Since then, the Cats had tournament wins of two points, five points, three points, one point and a six-point loss in the national championship to Connecticut.Thursday’s 23-point win, therefore, was a welcome development for these Cats. Kentucky led by as many as 35 with 12:43 remaining in the game, and more or less grinded it out for the remainder of the contest, working on sets and execution in preparation for their next game Saturday.”Anytime you don’t have to play a nail biter is good,” Cauley-Stein said. “I hate them. I’m glad we were up by so much because nail biters are not good for my heart.”Early in the first half it didn’t necessarily look like it could be a nail biter, but it certainly didn’t look like Kentucky’s best version of itself.The Wildcats led just 13-11 with 13:09 remaining in the first half, but then put their feet on the gas by going on a 19-3 run in which they allowed just one made field goal in 9:48 of game time to take a 32-14 lead. Kentucky would later enter the halftime locker room leading 41-22, and the only thing left in question being the final margin of victory.”We have so many waves of dudes that come in, and they don’t get to do their normal stuff,” Cauley-Stein said. “Coming in with seven-footers and not being able to shoot shots over bigger defenders. Just the fact that we take them out of their element that they’re not used to, it probably grinds them out.”On a day that saw an NCAA Tournament record five games decided by one point, the Cats didn’t want to raise that number to six. The players said afterward that they saw the close games and upsets play out during the day as they waited for their game, and it got their full attention.”Anything can happen,” Cauley-Stein said. “They could have come out and all of them just clip 3s on us. Stuff happens like that.””We know every team is fighting for the last win in March so we have to go in with that mindset and that’s what we’ve been doing and Coach has been stressing that to us every game,” Booker said.Up next for the Cats is a third-round matchup against Cincinnati (23-10) on Saturday at approximately 2:40 p.m. While the Cats say they don’t know much about the Bearcats outside of the few minutes they watched in the tunnel Thursday night, Coach Cal said he does think Cincinnati will have something in mind if they watched UK play against Hampton.”If there are points in this game they watch tonight, they probably have in their mind, we can beat these guys,” Calipari said. “The we know every team we play comes in with the idea, I’m telling you we can beat them, and we deal with that every time we play, and I imagine Cincy will come in with the same thing.”