KENTUCKY MEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME NOTES 
FLORIDA at KENTUCKY
RUPP ARENA at CENTRAL BANK CENTER                   
MARCH 6, 2021 
ATTENDANCE: 3075
 
Final Score: Kentucky 92, South Carolina 64
 
Team Records and Series Notes                                       

• Kentucky finishes the regular season 9-15 overall, 8-9 in the Southeastern Conference.
  • UK completed the season 5-6 in Rupp Arena, the first sub.-500 season in the venue’s history and the first since the 1926-27 season at home.
• South Carolina is 6-14 overall, 4-12 in league play.

• Kentucky leads the overall series 53-13.
  • UK leads 29-2 in games played in Lexington.
• Next: Kentucky clinched the 8 seed in the SEC Tournament with Mississippi State’s loss to Auburn. UK will play the ninth-seeded Bulldogs on Thursday at noon ET (11 a.m. ET in Nashville, Tennessee) in the second round of the tournament.
  • The game will be televised on the SEC Network.
  • The winner of Thursday’s game will play top-seeded Alabama on Friday at noon ET in the quarterfinals.
  • It’s the first time UK will begin its run before the quarterfinals since the tournament expanded in 2013.
  • The Wildcats will try to win four games in a row at the SEC Tournament to clinch an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament, which UK hasn’t done since 1952.

 
Player Notes   

• Sparked by eight points in the first three minutes, Brandon Boston Jr. finished with a career-high 21 points.

  • He made six 3-point shots, his most 3 in a game at UK.
  • He was 7 of 13 from the floor.
  • He also tied his career high with three assists.
• Davion Mintz had 20 points, just one shy of his career high thanks to a career-high six 3-pointers.
  • It’s the seventh consecutive game he has made at least two long balls and the 10th time in the last 11 games.
  • He had five 3-pointers in the first 5:09 of the second half.
  • He is averaging 16.8 points over his last five games with a combined 20 3-pointers.
  • Mintz had a game-high seven assists and totals 15 over the last two games, the best two-game stretch of his career.
• Oliver Sarr had 15 points, his 13th double-figure game of the season, in just 21 minutes.
  • It’s the eighth time in the last 11 games he has scored in double figures.
• Isaiah Jackson collected 13 points and a game-high 10 rebounds, his second double-double of the season.
  • It is his sixth game in a row to score in double figures and he is averaging 14.3 points per game during that span.  
• Keion Brooks Jr. added seven points and eight rebounds. He is averaging 8.6 boards over the last five games.
• Making his first start at Kentucky, Jacob Toppin had two points, two rebounds, two assists and one blocked shot.
• Freshman Lance Ware scored two points, his first time in the scorebook since Feb. 3 at Missouri.
• Freshman Cam’Ron Fletcher scored two points, his first tally since Nov. 24 vs. Richmond.
• Sophomore Zan Payne scored his first two points as a Wildcat.
• Freshman Kareem Watkins saw his first game action in a Wildcat uniform.
• Sophomore Brennan Canada logged minute for the first time since the season opener.

 
Coach John Calipari 

• Calipari is now 339-92 at UK.
• Calipari has a 784-232 all-time on-court record. 
• UK is 275-54 under Calipari against teams unranked in The Associated Press Top 25.
• Calipari is 15-4 in his career vs. South Carolina.
• Calipari’s career record improved to 165-49 in March and April games.

 
Team Notes 

• Kentucky limited South Carolina to 38.2% shooting. UK is 209-24 under Calipari when keeping the competition to 40% or less, although just 7-5 this season.
  • UK has held nine of its last 15 opponents to 40% or less from the floor.
• UK scored a season-high 92 points today. UK is 8-1 this season when scoring at least 76 points but 1-14 when scoring 75 or fewer.
• Kentucky made 13 of 27 3-point shots today, its second-most long balls of the season.
  • It’s the fifth time in the last seven games the Wildcats have made at least seven 3-pointers.
  • Boston and Mintz each made six 3-pointers, becoming only the second UK teammates to make six or more 3-pointers in the same game. Travis Ford (seven) and Jamal Mashburn (six) did it Jan. 3, 1993, vs. Indiana.
• This is the first time this season that UK had two 20-point scorers. The last time was Feb. 4, 2020, when Immanuel Quickley (21) and Nick Richards (27) did so vs. Mississippi State.
• With 17 assists and 17 turnovers, UK is now 9-3 this season when breaking even or better on assist/TO margin. The Wildcats are 0-12 this season with a negative assist-to-turnover margin.
• UK led by as many as 33 points and won by 28. UK is 288-12 under Calipari when leading by at least 10 points during the game, 7-4 this season.
  • It was the Wildcats’ biggest margin of victory in SEC play this season and second only overall to its 36-point victory vs. Morehead State in the season opener.  
  • It was Kentucky’s largest margin of victory vs. an SEC foe since also beating South Carolina by 28 (76-48) on Feb. 5, 2019.

 
In the First Half 

• Kentucky started Davion Mintz, Brandon Boston Jr., Jacob Toppin, Isaiah Jackson and Olivier Sarr for the first time. It is the ninth different starting lineup used by the Wildcats this season.

  • Keion Brooks Jr. and Dontaie Allen were the first substitutes at the 14:11 mark.
  • With Lance Ware and Devin Askew coming in at 12:47, UK had nine players in the game during the first eight minutes.
• Kentucky scored on its first five possessions, three baskets by Boston – including a pair of 3-pointers – and two buckets by Jackson, in staking a 12-4 lead.
• UK, however, missed 10 of its next 12 shots as South Carolina got its first lead at 18-17.
• Trailing 22-20 with nine minutes to go, UK closed the half with a 16-6 run and went to intermission ahead 36-28.
  • 3-pointers were the difference in the first half, as UK made 5 of 14 while USC was 0 of 5.
  • Boston led the Wildcats with 12 points while Sarr contributed 11.
  • Kentucky is now 6-6 this season when leading at halftime.

 
In the Second Half 

• Kentucky began the second half with Mintz, Boston, Toppin, Brooks and Jackson.
• Kentucky opened with a 19-8 run, ballooning the lead to 55-36, forcing a USC timeout at 14:51.
  • Mintz scored 15 of the 19 points, making five 3-pointers, including three long balls in a 42-second span that preceded the South Carolina timeout. 
  • Counting the end of the first half, UK had a 35-14 run after trailing 22-20.
• Kentucky expanded its largest lead to 33 points at 88-55, its largest lead of the season against an SEC opponent.