National Basketball Association
Kentucky 93, Monmouth-NJ 76
When: 12:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 9, 2017
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York
Officials:
# Pat Evans, # Tony Henderson, # Rob Rorke
Attendance:
10438
By The Sports Xchange
NEW YORK -- No. 8 Kentucky got career-high scoring efforts from three freshmen in a 93-76 rout of Monmouth Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
Hamidou Diallo scored 23 points, P.J. Washington scored 20 and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 15 for Kentucky (8-1), which won for the sixth straight time.
"Hami doing less looks way better," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "Less is more for him, but that is so hard. Don't try to do so much, just do these things."
Washington has lost 15 pounds over the last 17 days, according to Calipari, and it showed up in the Garden on Saturday.
"P.J. lost that weight and all the sudden he doesn't even look like the same guy," Calipari said. "I wasn't sure if it was going to be this game, but he had been practicing this way."
Calipari said the improved play of Diallo, Washington and others is the first step to this young Kentucky team, which starts five freshmen, coming together.
"Individual players have to improve before your team can get better," Calipari said. "I'm a little disappointed that the kids aren't getting the respect they deserve as players. ... There were some things we did in the first half you would think we have cracked through. Well, we really haven't but we are trending in that direction."
The timing could be perfect as Kentucky enters the meat of its schedule leading up to Southeastern Conference play.
"I worry because we're going to get in league play and it's not going to be 20, it's going to be a war," Calipari said. "The games coming up with Virginia Tech, UCLA, Louisville, we've got tough games coming up. We're better, but we're still not capable of going 40 minutes."
Monmouth (3-7) has lost three in a row.
"We couldn't make them uncomfortable with our defense," Monmouth coach King Rice said. "They continued to move the ball. It was impressive ball movement, no kid tried to go one-on-one. When you're sharing the ball that way, you will get open shots and that's the key to college basketball."
Kentucky shot 53.4 percent and won the rebounding battle 43-31.
Monmouth shot 37.1 percent. Freshman guard Deion Hammond came off the bench to lead the Hawks with 19 points and junior guard Micah Seaborn added 18.
UK wasted no time putting the game out of reach by blowing out to a 22-8 lead from the opening tip on the strength of an 11-0 run. Five players got in on the scoring, led by Gilgeous-Alexander and Diallo with three points each.
UK then used a 13-0 run late in the first half to grab a 47-22 lead. Three-pointers by Gilgeous-Alexander and Quade Green led the run. A dunk by Washington with 1:37 gave UK's its largest first-half lead of 25 points at 52-27.
Kentucky led 54-31 at halftime. The 54 points was the most scored in a first half since 60-39 against Ole Miss on Dec. 29, 2016.
Washington topped UK in the first half with a perfect 16 points. He was 4-for-4 from the field, including 1-for-1 from 3-point range, and 7-for-7 from the free-throw line. Gilgeous-Alexander added 10 off the bench.
As a team, Kentucky shot 58.6 percent in the first half, while limiting Monmouth to 32.2 percent. The Wildcats more than doubled up Monmouth in rebounding 27-13.
NOTES: Kentucky sophomore F Sacha Killeya-Jones sat out Saturday's game with an ankle sprain ... UK freshman G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 2.5 steals per game, a pace just off the record set by Rajon Rondo in 2005 ... The game at Madison Square Garden was a reunion of sorts for the Monmouth coaching staff. In 1988, head coach King Rice played for North Carolina and assistant coach Jamal Meeks played for Indiana when the two teams met in the Preseason NIT, a game Carolina won 106-92 ... It took G Micah Seaborn just 75 games to reach 1,000 points scored, fourth fastest in Monmouth history.
Top Game Performances
| Monmouth-NJ |
|
Kentucky |
|
Deion Hammond 19 |
Scoring |
Hamidou Diallo 23 |
|
Ray Salnave 5 |
Assists |
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 9 |
|
Zac Tillman 6 |
Rebounds |
Nick Richards 8 |
|
Micah Seaborn 4 |
Free Throws Made |
PJ Washington 9 |
|
Ray Salnave 3 |
Steals |
Hamidou Diallo 2 |
|
Melik Martin 1 |
Blocks |
PJ Washington 4 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Monmouth-NJ
|
76 |
37.1 |
10-29 |
14-18 |
20 |
31 |
2 |
10 |
15 |
| Kentucky
|
93 |
53.4 |
7-19 |
24-32 |
20 |
43 |
8 |
7 |
19 |
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