FINAL: No. 8 Miami gets blasted against No. 12 Kentucky 95-73
The No. 12 Wildcats nearly ran the Hurricanes right out of Rupp Arena in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge, fueled by a dominating second-half performance that saw the home team win by a final score of 95-73. Powered by Kentucky’s run-and-gun offense, Miami stood no chance against the Cats.
If you were hoping this game would live up to the hype on offense, you didn’t have to wait long for the points to start raining down. The score was already tied 10-10 at the first media timeout as both sides quickly got into a rhythm.
Kentucky would deliver the first punch, jumping ahead 21-11 and forcing the Hurricanes into a timeout. But Miami hit right back with a potentially deadly counter, rattling off an impressive 18-2 run over the course of four minutes that put them in front 29-23. The ‘Canes would hold onto the lead for a few more minutes before the game of runs continued, this time in favor of the ‘Cats.
A massive two-handed dunk from Edwards gave Kentucky the lead back with just over a minute until the break. Back-to-back layups by Reeves and Mitchell pushed UK to a 42-37 advantage going into halftime. And then that’s just were everything took over for Kentucky.
All five of Miami’s starters entered the game averaging in double figures, but only Poplar and Omier reached that mark against the Wildcats. Matthew Cleveland, who entered as the team’s second-leading scorer at 16.8 points per game, was held to five points. Nijel Pack, who was coming off a 28-point game and averaging 16 a contest, was held to two points on 1-of-6 shooting and Bensley Joseph, who was averaging 11.6, scored just four.
UP NEXT
Miami hosts Notre Dame in their first Atlantic Coast Conference game on Saturday (12:00 p.m., CW).
Trinton is the owner of CanesToday. He writes for all sports, with a focus on football and recruiting, he is a freshman in high school and wants to graduate from the University of Miami
