Missed layups, turnovers, and foul trouble doomed Kentucky vs. Florida

We’ve seen Kentucky claw back from double-digit deficits five times this season, four in SEC play. Today, the Cats tried to do it again, but simply made too many mistakes against a good team, losing to Florida 92-83 in Gainesville. Even then, Collin Chandler hit a three-pointer to cut the Gators’ lead to five with 36.8 seconds to go. This team always brings the effort; today, it was the execution that cost them.

Let’s go over a few stats that doomed Kentucky in Round 1 vs. the Gators. The first one is by far the most frustrating.

15 missed layups

Missed layups have been an issue for Kentucky all season; they really hurt the Cats today. Kentucky was just 8-23 on layups, missing eight in the first half. Otega Oweh was 4-14 (28.6%) from the field, Denzel Aberdeen 8-21 (38.1%). Kentucky’s best finishers just couldn’t finish at the rim today, a testament to Florida’s defense, which zeroed in on Oweh. It worked.

Oweh finished with just 13 points, snapping his five-game streak of scoring 20+. He still crossed the 1,000-point mark in his Kentucky career, an impressive feat for the second-year Wildcat.

25 Florida points off 14 Kentucky turnovers

It’s hard to beat good teams when you miss gimmes. It’s also tough when you keep turning over the ball. Kentucky had 14 turnovers today, leading to 25 Florida points. Most of the turnovers happened early on when the Cats fell in a double-digit hole, but the sloppiness reared its ugly head again down the final stretch when they were trying to make their comeback.

Foul Trouble

There are a lot of things you can say about the officiating today. Florida definitely got a home whistle, but that wasn’t the only reason Kentucky lost. Still, the foul disparity was glaring, especially in the second half. Florida hit the single bonus less than six minutes into the second half. Kentucky was called for 17 fouls after halftime, Florida just 9. That led to an 18-25 mark from the free-throw line for the Gators to Kentucky’s 11-14.

Second-half rebounding

Florida’s frontcourt is very good, one of the best in the country. That said, the Cats held their own inside early on, thanks in large part to Malachi Moreno. The freshman had a double-double, putting up 11 points and 11 rebounds in 21 minutes, with foul trouble limiting his minutes. Had Moreno not gotten into foul trouble, this might have been a different game.

At halftime, Kentucky and Florida were tied at rebounding at 20 boards each. In the second half, the Gators took over inside, outrebounding Kentucky by 8, 25-17. That was especially apparent on the offensive glass, with Florida pulling down 11 offensive rebounds to Kentucky’s five. That led to nine second-chance points for the Gators.

Florida threes

Coming in, it seemed Kentucky had an advantage in the backcourt. Xaivian Lee clearly took offense to that, scoring a game-high 22 points, including seven in the first five minutes to help Florida jump out to a big lead. Lee was averaging just 1.5 made threes per game coming into this game; today, he hit four.

Urban Klavzar, Florida’s best three-point shooter, stepped up in the second half, hitting four of his five threes to keep the game just outside of Kentucky’s reach. A lot of those threes weren’t closely guarded. Florida finished with 10 threes overall, up from their average of 7.4 in SEC play.

On the other side of the ball, Kentucky was 9-20 from three, three of those coming from Collin Chandler in the final five minutes. We said coming in that if the Cats had a chance to pull off the upset, they’d have to get hot from beyond the arc. It was too little too late today.

Kentucky will get another shot at the Gators on March 7 at Rupp to end the regular season. Hopefully, they’ll learn from today’s mistakes.