{"id":183640,"date":"2023-01-11T14:06:12","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T14:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/kentucky-basketball-hits-new-low-with-loss-to-south-carolina\/"},"modified":"2023-01-11T14:06:12","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T14:06:12","slug":"kentucky-basketball-hits-new-low-with-loss-to-south-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/kentucky-basketball-hits-new-low-with-loss-to-south-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky basketball hits new low with loss to South Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Game day: South Carolina 71, Kentucky 68<\/h3>\n
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Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and South Carolina in Rupp Arena.\n <\/p>\n
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A game that was expected to serve as a confidence-booster for a reeling Kentucky basketball team coming off its worst loss of the season instead took a turn toward the unthinkable. <\/p>\n
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South Carolina defeated UK 71-68 on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, an unfathomable result for a Wildcats team that walked onto their home court as 19.5-point favorites.<\/p>\n
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The visitors controlled the entire game.<\/p>\n
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The Gamecocks jumped out to a 21-6 lead in the early going of the first half and led Kentucky by 10 points \u2014 a 42-32 score \u2014 at halftime. <\/p>\n
South Carolina, it must be noted, is the Southeastern Conference’s lowest-ranked team and one of the worst power-conference squads in all of college basketball.<\/p>\n
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Coming into Tuesday night’s game, the Gamecocks were No. 214 nationally in the KenPom ratings, No. 263 nationally in the NCAA’s NET rankings, and No. 272 nationally in the Torvik ratings. Their offense is considered to be weaker than their defense \u2014 which is not considered to be strong, by any means \u2014 yet South Carolina was able to shoot 56.7 percent against the Cats in the first half, 48.2 percent for the game.<\/p>\n
The Gamecocks were averaging 64.3 points per game and shooting 39.6 percent from the floor before Tuesday night. Three days before coming to Lexington, they lost a home game to Tennessee 85-42. Against Kentucky’s defense, they had matched their point total for that entire game by halftime.<\/p>\n