LEXINGTON, Ky.
-- Juniors Joe Crawford and Randolph Morris helped the
Kentucky Wildcats overcome a slow start against the
College of Charleston. Down 11-6 at the midway point of
the first half, the Wildcats went on a 21-4 run to close
out the half, holding coach Bobby Cremins' team to just
15 points for the half. Kentucky continued its run at
the beginning of the second half, breaking out to a 10-2
advantage and cruising to a 77-61 win.
Morris led the Cats with
17 points. Crawford added 15. Freshman Perry Stevenson
came off the bench and dropped in a career-high 14
points on 7-7- field goal shooting. ``He's able to get
use of his size when he jumps up that high,'' center
Jared Carter said of Stevenson. ``He's underweight for a
post player, but that will come.''
“I thought he did a
great job tonight, playing 16 minutes," said coach Tubby
Smith, "We started Sheray [Thomas] because he is more
physical and a very heady player. Perry was much more
effective tonight than he was in Maui, but that could
have been because we played three games in a very short
period of time. I was impressed with the way he played
around the basket.”
Smith stressed defense
all week, he acknowledged the offense may have struggled
a little as a result. The Wildcats failed to connect on
their first nine shots and didn't hit a field goal until
six minutes into the game. “We started the game
excellent on defense, but we couldn’t get it going on
offense," said Crawford, "We did pick it up, but we’ve
got to figure out a way to play well on both ends of the
floor.”
``After we got it
moving, everybody was rotating, talking,'' Morris said.
``We had fewer lapses.''
Although the Wildcats
shot only 37 percent in the first half, the Cougars were
even worse thanks to tremendous pressure from the
Wildcats defense. Cremins' club was only 1-of-11 from
3-point range and failed to score for large periods of
the game.
"I
thought we did a great job on [Dontaye]
Draper," Smith said, "We did a
good job of taking the ball out
of the trap. I think we did some
positive things tonight. The
deflections were up for the
first time and we did a better
job on defensive possessions. I
was pleased with our second-half
shooting. I thought Bobby
[Perry] did a good job, making
three shots tonight after he’d
struggled in our last few games.
Our rebounding was better, but
we still gave up too many
offensive rebounds (19).”