With the former #1 ranked North Carolina Tarheels unexpectantly losing for the first time all season, to an upstart UNLV squad in the LV Invitational Tourney, the University of Kentucky Wildcats are primed to ascend to the top spot when the next Top 25 polls come out.
Prior to the Tarheels going down Saturday evening, Coach Calipari’s Wildcat squad made easy work of an over-matched Portland Pilot squad 87-63, at Rupp Arena. The victory was the 6th straight double digit win to start the season and was arguably the final tune-up before much tougher competition begins against St. John’s, North Carolina, and a much improved Indiana squad over the next two weeks.
With former NBA great and Kentucky alum Antoine Walker sitting courtside, the Wildcats were led in scoring by Terrence Jones and Darius Miller with 19 points a piece. But the real stars of the game were freshmen Anthony Davis (13pts, 12reb, 4blk), Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (11pts, 7reb, 3ast, 2stl, 2blk), and PG Marquis Teague, who arguably had his best game of the season with 14 points, 8 assists, and 4 steals, in addition to zero turnovers.
But the highlight of the game came early in the 2nd half with Kentucky clinging to a 45-37 lead when Davis and Kidd-Glichrist decided to take-over the game with consecutive poster dunks to turn the momentum to Kentucky for good…
Check out Kentucky’s back-to-back monster jams vs Portland:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, ?in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
