Kentucky 86, South Carolina 52

By Darryl Slater

The Sports Xchange

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Top-ranked Kentucky continued to roll through the less-than-challenging first part of its Southeastern Conference schedule Saturday, as it won 86-52 at South Carolina.

Forward Anthony Davis led Kentucky with 22 points on 9-of-10 shooting, eight rebounds and eight blocks. Kentucky's lead was as large as 71-30, with 10:14 left but the game was essentially over at halftime as the Wildcats (23-1, 9-0) led 52-25 after shooting 17 of 29.

Eight of Kentucky's field goals in the first half were dunks - five by Davis and three by forward Terrence Jones. Davis shot 7-of-7 and scored 18 points in the half. He also blocked five shots.

South Carolina (9-13, 1-7) shot 9-of-34 in the first half for 26.5 percent.

For the game, Kentucky shot 32-of-62 (51.6 percent), while South Carolina shot 18-of-59 (30.5 percent).

Kentucky has won 15 consecutive games since its Dec. 10 loss at Indiana. But things are about to get tougher for the Wildcats.

Eight of their first nine league games were against the bottom six teams in the standings, which were the only SEC squads entering Saturday that had losing league records. In their final seven league games, they play Florida and Vanderbilt twice each and Mississippi State once.

Florida is ranked No. 12, Vanderbilt No. 25 and Mississippi State No. 22. Those three teams and Kentucky are the only SEC squads in the top 25.

Next up for Kentucky is Florida at home on Tuesday.

South Carolina (9-13, 1-7) had a brutal first half to SEC play. The Gamecocks played Kentucky and Florida twice and Vanderbilt once. They also played at Mississippi, which was one of six SEC teams with a winning conference record entering Saturday. The Gamecocks lost all of those games and have defeated only Alabama.

But the Gamecocks do have to play their next two games on the road - Wednesday against Tennessee and Saturday against Arkansas.

Saturday was just the fourth time a No. 1 team had ever played at USC. The last time it happened was in January 2010, when the Gamecocks beat Kentucky 68-62, thanks to 30 points from guard Devan Downey.

This time, the Gamecocks suffered their large margin of defeat under fourth-year coach Darrin Horn. The previous worst loss was by 31 last year at Kentucky.

Freshman guard Damien Leonard led USC with a career-high 19 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including 4-of-8 on 3-pointers.

Davis flirted with becoming the second Kentucky player ever to get a triple-double. Chris Mills did at it as a freshman in 1988 with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.