Kentucky Stays Perfect On Wall’s Record Night

By Michael King • on December 30, 2009

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RmXdifuPVE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

LEXINGTON—The Kentucky Wildcats played share the wealth Tuesday night at Rupp Arena against the Hartford Hawks. The ‘Cats dished out 30 assists while only turning the ball over 7 times. Kentucky’s fantastic freshman John Wall set a new ‘Cat record with 16 assists of his own. He surpassed the record of 15 assists held by Travis Ford.

It was all Kentucky early as the Wildcats scored the first 8 points of the game. The Wildcats gradually increased their margin, then used one of its patented runs (18-2) to put the Hawks away for good. It was an alley-oop dunkfest during that stretch. The ‘Cats threw down 3 in a row, one a spectacular behind the head dunk by Wall. The second half was more of the same as Kentucky came out smoking with a 14-0 run.

Kentucky hit a season high in points in route to a 104-61 beat down of the over-matched Hawks. They shot 60% from the field and 50% from behind the arc on 14-of-28. Kentucky also held the rebounding edge 41-24, won the battle of the paint 46-16, and scored 12 points off of fastbreaks to the Hawks none. The win raised Kentucky’s record to a perfect 14-0.

Five Kentucky Wildcats scored in double figures, led by DeMarcus Cousins and Darnell Dodson with 19. Cousins also added 12 boards for his third consecutive double-double. He only played 19 minutes.

Darius Miller scored 16 on 6-8 shooting and dished out 5 assists. Patrick Patterson scored 11 and was 5-8 from the field. He also assisted 4 times. Daniel Orton scored 10 points and blocked 2 shots.

John Wall only scored 9 points, but that wasn’t what he was about this game. He got his teammates easy looks, controlled the offense, and was the consummate unselfish point guard. Eric Bledsoe was out with a sprained ankle, so all the ball handling duties fell on Wall. Wall as usual delivered. We did get to find out what happens when teams concentrate on slowing Wall down……16 assists.

Coach Cal on Wall after the game said, “At halftime, he was 11-and-0 (assist-to-turnovers) and what I said to the team was that in a game like this he could try to score 30 points and not pass you all the ball and none of us would really say anything. In the end, and I normally don’t do it, but they told me he needed two more for the record so I stuck him back in and ran everything that I could to get him to pass it to somebody to get him the two and get him out of the game. I did it because it is a game where he could have tried to have 30 points but he chose not to and pass to his teammates. That is why I did it.”

The rest of Kentucky scoring:

Ramon Harris 7

Perry Stevenson 5

Mark Krebs 3

DeAndre Liggins 3

Josh Harrellson 2

Hartford had 3 double figure scorers. Joe Zeglinski led them with 19, Milton Burton added 18, and Morgan Sabia chipped in 16. Hartford seemed content to shoot long range with 29 of their 58 shots being 3-pointers. The Hawks hit 12 of those 3′s and 22 field goals overall for 38%. Hartford point guard, Andres Torres left the game early with a knee injury.

This game was a good tune up for the upcoming game with Louisville, Saturday at 3:30 pm ET. This was Kentucky’s last cupcake game before playing the Cardinals and starting the SEC schedule. I think this team has came a long way since that first exhibition game.

Kentucky’s 14-0 start is the best since the 1977-78 season.

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