Postgame Notes from Kentucky's 86-52 win over North Florida

What does Kentucky’s 86-52 victory over North Florida mean for the program as it looks ahead to Central Michigan? Check out the official game notes and statistics, courtesy of UK Athletics.

Final Score: No. 10/13 Kentucky 86, North Florida 52

Team Records and Series Notes

Kentucky extended its winning streak to five games and is now 5-1 on the 2021-22 season. North Florida dropped to 1-6 this season.
UK notched its first victory vs. UNF in the schools’ first meeting.
Next up: Kentucky will continue its season-long seven-game home stand on Monday when it hosts Central Michigan at 7 p.m. in Rupp Arena. The game will be live streamed by SEC Network+/ESPN+.
- It will mark the return of former UK assistant Tony Barbee, who served on staff at Kentucky from the 2014-15 season through the 2020-21 year. He was named CMU’s head coach following the 2020-21 season.
Attendance at Rupp Arena was a season-high 19,350.

Team Notes

Kentucky held North Florida to 52 points. UK is a perfect 81-0 under head coach John Calipari when holding the opponent to 55 or points or less. The Wildcats are 193-9 (95.5%) under Calipari when limiting the opponent to 63 points or less.
UK limited North Florida to 33.3% from the field. UK is 214-24 (89.9%) under Calipari when keeping the opponent to 40% or less.
Kentucky led by as many as 37 points. The Wildcats are 291-12 (96.0%) under Calipari when leading by at least 10 points at any time during the contest.
The Wildcats, who entered the contest No. 1 in the nation in rebounding margin, continued its rebounding dominance Friday with a plus-17 margin. UK has outrebounded all six opponents this season and has a plus-19.8 average margin for the season.
Five Kentucky players scored in double figures, the third time in six games at least five Wildcats have reached digits in a game.
The Wildcats outscored the Ospreys 28-0 on fastbreak points.
UK also dominated North Florida in the points-off-turnovers category, winning that battle 20-3.
Kentucky came up with 13 steals, tied for the second most of the Calipari era.
- The Calipari era benchmark is 15, set Nov. 16, 2012, vs. Lafayette.

Player Notes

TyTy Washington Jr led the Wildcats in scoring for the second time this season with a game-high-tying 14 points.
- He was 6 for 13 from the floor, ending a four-game streak of shooting 50% or better.
- It was the first time this season he failed to match or increase his scoring total from the previous game.
- He had a career-high four steals.
Sahvir Wheeler, who entered the game first in the country with 8.2 assists per game, dished out a game-high and career-high 14 assists to go along with 12 points.
- It is the most assists by a Wildcat since Tyler Ulis had 14 vs. LSU on March 5, 2016.
- It was tied for the third-most assists in school history and was the most ever by a junior.
- It was his second double-double of the season and 10th of his career.
Oscar Tshiebwe, the country’s leading rebounder,posted his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.
- It was his sixth straight game in double-figure rebounding to start the season.
- He is the first player to grab 10 or more rebounds in six straight games since Julius Randle posted a 10-game streak in February and March of 2014.
- He is tied for the national lead in double-doubles with five.
Dontaie Allen scored a season high and game-high-tying 14 points, tallying 12 of them in the second half.
- He also snared a career-high seven rebounds and tied a career high with two assists.
Daimion Collins made the most of his first career start with 12 points and six boards.
Jacob Toppin (shoulder) and Lance Ware (ankle) returned to action. Toppin had missed four straight games and Ware had missed the last three.
- Toppin had three points and two rebounds in his return.
- Ware scored four points.
Davion Mintz and Keion Brooks Jr. did not play due to illness.
- Mintz missed his second straight game. It was Brooks’ first absence of the season.

Coach Calipari

Calipari improved to 344-94 at UK.
Calipari has a 789-234 all-time on-court record.
UK is 280-55 in games vs. unranked Associated Press competition and 171-11 vs. unranked foes in Rupp Arena.
Calipari is 1-0 all-time vs. North Florida.
Kentucky is 193-17 in Rupp Arena under Calipari, winning the last six in a row.
UK is 100-6 vs. nonconference foes under Calipari in Rupp Arena.

In the First Half

Kentucky started Sahvir Wheeler, TyTy Washington Jr., Kellan Grady, Daimion Collins and Oscar Tshiebwe for the first time this season with Keion Brooks Jr. unavailable due to illness.
Making his first career start, Collins got the game’s opening points with a two-hand putback slam.
Jacob Toppin, appearing in his first game since the season opener vs. Duke because of a shoulder injury, was Kentucky’s first sub at the 16:32 mark.
The Wildcats got off to a slow start as North Florida took a 12-7 lead.
At the under-8 timeout, Kentucky had made just five of its first 20 shots and trailed 16-14, but the Wildcats came out of the timeout with some much-needed energy. Collins started an 8-0 run with an alley-oop slam on a beautiful feed from Dontaie Allen. A minute and a half later, the Wildcats forced UNF to burn a 30-second timeout after a steal from Washington led to a transition layup and a 20-16 lead for UK.
- UK stretched the run to 8-0 out of the timeout with a Collins offensive putback.
- The overall run was 12-2 over 4:13 of game time, turning a 16-14 deficit to a 26-18 Kentucky advantage.
Kentucky closed the half on a 6-0 run to take a 37-23 lead to the halftime locker room.
After starting the game 5 of 20 from the field, UK made 11 of 19 to close the half.
Collins capitalized on his first start with eight points and four rebounds in the first half.
Wheeler also scored eight and dished out four assists.
Tshiebwe extended his double-figure rebounding streak to start the season in the first half alone with 11 boards to go along with seven points.

In the Second Half

Kentucky started the second half with the same starting five: Wheeler, Washington, Grady, Collins and Tshiebwe.
Grady started the second half with the hot hand, scoring Kentucky’s first six points – all on jumpers.
UK opened the second half with 12 points in the first 4:04 of play.
Kentucky increased its lead to 54-30 on an 8-0 run highlighted by a steal and layup by Wheeler.
A 9-0 run – fueled by the helping hand of Wheeler with three assists in the burst – ballooned the lead to 75-40 with 4:42 left in the game.
Kentucky led by as many as 37 with 2:34 left to play.
Allen led UK in the second half with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting.