Kentucky shows plenty of fight in routing South Carolina

Early in the first half, a South Carolina player stepped to the foul line. Before the player took the ball to shoot, Kentucky sent Skal Labissiere into the game.

Labissiere, who is 6-foot-11, assumed he could take a rebounding position closest to the basket. But Isaiah Briscoe, who is eight inches shorter, refused to budge.

As Labissiere gestured that he wanted the spot, Briscoe shook his head, as if to say, there’s no way I’m leaving the front line of this game, which already seemed destined to be played on the edge of mayhem.

The season-long talk of UK’s lack of fight and competitive spirit can be put to rest. Kentucky showed abundant fervor in handing South Carolina an embarrassing 89-62 defeat Saturday.

Besides routing a South Carolina team which used grit, muscle and experience to the top of the Southeastern Conference, Kentucky made mincemeat of the athletic world’s ultimate insult.

“That team wanted to physically intimidate us,” UK assistant coach Kenny Payne said of South Carolina. “That team wanted to beat us up and show … that we are soft.”

Both sides said an ejection of UK Coach John Calipari set the tone for a rough, tough competition.

Barely two game minutes after Darius Rucker’s stirring a cappella rendition of the national anthem, Calipari objected to a non-call. From his dive-into-the-pool arm gestures, it appeared the UK coach believed Michael Carrera went over the back of a Wildcat to get an offensive rebound.

Referee Doug Sirmons ran from across the court to slap Calipari with a technical foul. This only served to further enrage an already aggrieved Calipari.

Sirmons responded with a second technical foul, which meant an automatic ejection. After several in the Kentucky party used what Payne called “a lot of effort” to hold Calipari back, the UK coach departed with 17:34 left in the first half.

“I thought it set a fire within our guys,” Payne said of Calipari’s ejection. “I thought they played with (a feeling of) you tried to take one of our guys out. We’re coming out and we’re going to play with more energy and more effort.”

Kentucky, which improved to 19-6 overall and 9-3 in the SEC, knew it would have to fight. “That’s what this game was about,” Tyler Ulis said.

Payne called South Carolina the “toughest, fighting-est” team in the league.

“They win games because they absolutely beat you up,” he said. “For us to play the way we did makes a statement of who we are.”

Carrera, who made only one of four technical free throws, said Calipari’s ejection had an effect on UK players. “I think it inspired them,” he said.

Whether Calipari wanted to be ejected in order to gird his players for the battle at hand went unanswered. He did not appear at the post-game news conference, which was a repeat of his ejection and no-show here two years ago.

“I’m not going to sit here and tell you Cal did that on purpose,” South Carolina Coach Frank Martin said. “But I think there’s no doubt Cal was on edge, and he did a much better job than I did getting those guys ready for this game.”

Kentucky slowly and steadily pulled away to a 42-27 halftime lead.

Two statistics showed how intently UK battled. The Cats won the boards in the first half, 21-18, nullifying South Carolina’s greatest strength. Kentucky also limited the Gamecocks to 9-for-26 shooting in the first half, and an even-worst 9-for-29 in the second half.

Another sign of the intensity surrounding this game came with 9:17 left. Referee Tony Greene went to the UK bench and appeared to caution a strength coach, Robert Harris, to maintain his composure.

UK’s Three Tenors — who else? — led the way. Ulis’s 27 points and 12 assists were career highs. Jamal Murray added 26 points and Briscoe chipped in 10.

South Carolina, which had only a 3-3 record when trailing at halftime, faced its largest deficit going into the second half.

Nothing changed early in the second half. Kentucky continued to pull away and South Carolina lost its composure.

A fast-breaking Ulis thrilled his teammates with a pass off the backboard that Marcus Lee dunked. That put UK ahead 49-29 and prompted a timeout with 18:19 left.

Before the Gamecocks went to the bench, Carrera shoved Lee. Lee tried to get a referee’s attention by pointing at Carrera, but no call was made.

Less than 90 seconds later, South Carolina’s composure cracked in plain view. After Briscoe was called for walking, freshman Jamall Gregory swiped with disdain at the ball. That resulted in a technical foul with 17:56 left.

Murray’s dunk over Justin McKie expanded Kentucky’s lead to 77-43 with 7:02 left. It also prompted the game’s fourth technical foul.

Briscoe was hit the technical, presumably for excessive enjoyment of Murray’s dunk.

Martin, who exudes machismo, called the game a “good old-fashioned butt-whipping.”

The South Carolina coach credited Kentucky for proving it’s still the SEC’s heavyweight champ.

“We got thrown around like little rag dolls,” he said.

When a reporter asked if UK’s length troubled the Gamecocks, Martin said, “Their length didn’t hurt us. What hurt us was their will. Their resolve and their will was a lot stronger than ours.”

This story was originally published February 13, 2016 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Kentucky shows plenty of fight in routing South Carolina."