No funhouse like the exhibition against Morehouse. So Kentucky settled for a relatively tranquil 108-58 crunching of Marist on Friday night to open the season.

Too tranquil to suit UK Coach John Calipari, who suggested the Cats still have to learn that opponents appreciate "the big deal" that playing in Rupp Arena represents.

Without freshmen Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and Anthony Davis, "We would have been down at half," he said.

With them, Kentucky led 45-36 after a surprisingly competitive first 20 minutes. Thereafter, UK overpowered Marist. The second half included eight of UK's 13 dunks and a dominance that helped produce a 51-29 rebound margin for the game and a surreal 78-20 advantage in points in the paint.

"The No. 2 team in the country showed up," Marist Coach Chuck Martin said of UK's 63-22 second-half pounding of his unafraid but over-matched team.

Davis led UK with a double-double: 23 points and 10 rebounds. With a self-conscious smile, he said his teammates wanted him to achieve a triple-double, counting dunks.

The long, lean Chicagoan's eight dunks reflected how well Kentucky substituted lobs for a traditional back-to-the-basket post presence.

"We incorporate (lobs) in every set we run," Davis said. "... I know when (teammates) drive, I'm automatically looking for lobs."

The opposing center usually patrols the lane, so he switches off Davis to stop a driver. All-America candidate Terrence Jones, who came off the bench for the first time since last season's game at Alabama (and for only fourth time in his career), noted the difference in the lobs to last season's feeds to the more gravity-challenged Josh Harrellson.

"It was just normal passes (for Harrellson), not alley oops," Jones said.

Presumably, Jones became a substitute as punishment for his reported involvement in a car accident at 2:30 Friday morning. He contributed eight points and nine rebounds.

Jones said he did not know if he'd start or come off the bench when UK plays Tuesday against Kansas in Madison Square Garden.

Marist, which was coming off a 6-27 season, was led by 5-foot-8 freshman Isaiah Morton, who scored 13 points.

Kentucky reached 100 points in an opener for only the second time since 1994. The other time was the 111-103 loss to VMI to start the 2008-09 season.

Barely five minutes into the game, Marist had matched the 13 first-half points scored by Morehouse against UK on Monday in an exhibition game. Morton hit a three-pointer with 14:52 left to tie it at 13-13.

Kentucky did not take the lead for good until Kidd-Gilchrist drove to a three-point play to produce a 24-21 lead. The Cats stretched the lead to double digits once in the first half when Jones' put-back dunk — one of the team's five first-half dunks — put UK ahead 45-34 with 1:44 left.

The game began as if a dominating victory — surely not as cartoonish as the Morehouse game — would unfold. With Kidd-Gilchrist his spirited self again, the Cats led 10-5 when Marist called time with 17:05 left.

Inside the first 10 minutes, Kidd-Gilchrist scored nine points, grabbed three rebounds and made two steals. Never was his all-court presence better exhibited than, when guarding a perimeter player, he stole an attempted bounce pass into the low post before it hit the court, sped upcourt and threw a diagonal lob that Davis dunked.

But Marist refused to play the patsy. After missing four of their first five shots, the Red Foxes made five in a row (three from beyond the three-point arc). The visitors hung in, in part by spreading the floor and driving against UK defenders.

"We didn't stay down, we didn't stunt, we didn't help," Calipari said of the first-half defense. "A lot of ugly stuff."

Kentucky, which intends to thrive on defense and rebounding, controlled the boards. But Marist made 14 of 28 first-half shots (five of eight from three-point distance).

Marist had to call another timeout early in the second half. This time it came 85 seconds after play began. Kentucky had dunked twice and made a layup to stretch its lead to 51-36.

A 19-2 run over five minutes put the Cats ahead 72-42 and pointed the way home.

During the run, Davis dunked three times. That gave him seven dunks with 13:32 still to play.

"It just kind of demoralizes the other team," Calipari said of the lobs Davis dunks. "Think about it. You play great defense, the (driver) is falling out of bounds and throws it at the rim. And the guy dunks it and smashes it and the whole crowd goes nuts."

Perhaps the nuttiest moment came when Miller chased down a long rebound, then drove into the lane. He flipped a lob to Davis for a dunk.

"We throw it to the top of the square where no one else can get it," Miller said of the lobs for Davis, "and he can dunk it."