FINAL: Kentucky 72, Florida 67

WHAT HAPPENED: Freshman guard Cason Wallace scored 20 points, including a pair of clutch free throws with 13 seconds remaining, and Kentucky did a wire-to-wire number on visiting Florida, though not without some late drama, on the way to a 72-67 victory in their Southeastern Conference game Saturday night at Rupp Arena. The Wildcats, winners of six consecutive league games, built leads of 13 in the first and 14 with eight minutes to play before the Gators made things interesting with a couple runs in the final minutes that drew them as close as three points when fifth-year senior guard Myreon Jones hit a 3-pointer with 36.6 seconds to go. UF fouled forward Jacob Toppin (17 points, 10 rebounds) on the inbound and he missed the front end of a one-and-one at the UK, with UF rebounding and heading to their halfcourt with a chance to tie. Kentucky’s defense forced a contested 3 by Jones that was not close, with Wallace rebounding and icing the game with his two free throws. Florida was led by another terrific game by fifth-year forward Colin Castleton, who finished with a game-high 25 points to go with eight rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Castleton scored 19 of his points after halftime and got the edge on his UK counterpart, SEC and NCAA Player of the Year Oscar Tshiebwe. The UK post man was his normal dominant self on the glass in finishing with 15 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end, but scored just four points and was fouled out by Castleton with 1:38 to go. The Gators’ trademark in league play coming in was defense, but that facet of their game did not make the trip to Lexington. UF, which was allowing 36.3-percent shooting in SEC play and ranked eighth nationally in defensive efficiency, allowed the Wildcats to hit 45 percent for the game (just the second SEC opponent to eclipse 40 percent) and 54 in the second half. UF, meanwhile, fell behind by making only two field goals through the game’s first 14 minutes and finished at just 41.8 percent for the game, but a decent 55 in the second half, with Castleton going nine of 16 from the floor and seven of seven from the free-throw line. The Gators also got 13 points each from fifth-year point guard Kyle Lofton and sophomore guard Will Richard. 

WHAT IT MEANS: Chalk up another Quadrant 1 loss, which makes the Gators 2-8 in that NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) category. While at it, chalk up…