UK’s stonewall defense smothers Stony Brook in NCAA’s first round

Always the wary coach, John Calipari said Kentucky’s opener in this year’s NCAA Tournament would not be a “typical 4-13 game.”

It may have been even less competitive than normal as Kentucky outclassed Stony Brook 85-57 Thursday night. The one-sided victory propelled UK (27-8) into a second-round game against former rival Indiana, which made a mockery of talk of a scary opener by routing Chattanooga 99-74.

Tyler Ulis broke John Wall’s single-season assist record. He got credit for seven assists, which increased his total this season to 243. Wall had 241 assists in the 2009-10 season.

Despite that accomplishment, the game was about defense.

Kentucky’s defense smothered Stony Brook. The Cats blocked 15 shots, the most this season and the most by any team in the NCAA Tournament.

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Stony Brook stars Jameel Warney and Carson Puriefoy never got untracked. They combined to make 13 of 38 shots.

The pair were supposed to make it a competitive game. They had led Stony Brook to No. 60 in the Ratings Percentage Index. Only three Southeastern Conference teams had a better RPI: Kentucky at No. 11, Texas A&M at No. 18 and Florida at No. 55.

Instead of another thriller, Kentucky limited Stony Brook to 26.3-percent shooting.

“It was pretty good . . . ,” a hard man to please, UK Coach John Calipari, said of the defense. The distinguishing feature, he said, was an ability to “follow a game plan, which this team has struggled with at times.”

Warney came into the game as the second Division I player to score 2,000 points without ever shooting a three-pointer (Christian Welp, who played from 1986-87, was the first).

Warney scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, but UK made him work hard, and the gaudy numbers did not accurately reflect his impact on the game.

“They were being Kentucky . . . ,” Warney said in explaining the defense he faced. “Huge in their (front line). You just can’t get away from the athleticism.”

Calipari noted how the Cats paid Warney the ultimate compliment by never letting him operate against a single defender.

Puriefoy made only three of 17 shots and scored 10 points.

“As the game wore on, their athleticism started to wear us down,” he said.

In the first half, Kentucky made only 11 of 34 shots. The Cats missed all seven of their three-point shots.

Yet, UK was the hot-shooting team, in relative terms, in the opening half.

Stony Brook, which was playing in its first NCAA Tournament game, made only seven of 37 shots. That evoked memories of UK’s 3-for-33 second half against Georgetown in the 1984 Final Four.

Kentucky’s defense throttled Stony Brook’s two main scorers. Warney, who came into the game as the school’s career scoring leader (2,109 points), made only three of 10 shots. UK heavily contested every shot.

It was quite a contrast from Warney’s last game, when he made 18 of 22 shots in a 43-point performance against Vermont in the American East Conference Tournament finals.

UK freshman Skal Labissiere had has many post-up baskets (one) as Warney in the first half.

Puriefoy, who Calipari had likened to Ulis, made only one of nine shots.

“They’re really long and athletic,” Puriefoy said. “That probably bothered me. . . . Credit to Kentucky. They played me with bigger players.”

Kentucky needed the defense because its offense never got into a good rhythm. Jamal Murray, who ended up leading UK in scoring with 19 points, made only one of nine shots in the first half. His futility reached a nadir late in the half when he missed a left-handed layup, then missed a 5-foot banker after grabbing a loose-ball rebound.

Murray scored 15 of his team-high 19 points in the second half.

“He’s going to be special,” Calipari said of Murray’s second-half revival. “He has the mental makeup. He’s never high and never low.”

Labissiere added to the oddity. He came out more active than ever this season. He took five of UK’s first 10 shots. He blocked five shots (one shy of a career high) in the game’s first 10 minutes.

Kentucky led most of the half. The Cats held Stony Brook without a basket for more than eight minutes in one stretch.

Kentucky stretched the lead beyond 20 points early in the second half. Murray got untracked with a pretty left-handed banker. Then his fast-break layup made it 44-23 with 16:30 left.

With Stony Brook outclassed, the only mystery left involved three-point shooting.

Would Kentucky extend its streak of games with a made three-point shot? The Cats missed their first seven shots from beyond the arc. Then Derek Willis hit a three from the right wing off a pass from Ulis – almost replicating the clutch shot in overtime against Texas A&M last Sunday.

That extended UK’s streak of games making a three-point shot to 974, which equaled UNLV for the longest active streak.

Kentucky can surpass UNLV on Saturday against Indiana.

Would Murray make a three-pointer? He had made at least one three-point shot in each of Kentucky’s first 34 games.

Murray missed his first four shots from three-point range, then made one barely a minute after Willis. It allowed the Cats to double the score on Stony Brook (a 50-25 lead) and ended any lingering suspense.

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 12:10 AM with the headline "UK’s stonewall defense smothers Stony Brook in NCAA’s first round."