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Kentucky cruises past South Carolina

Feb 20, 2011 - 4:29 AM Lexington, KY (Sports Network) - Darius Miller finished with a career-high 22 points to go along with nine rebounds as No. 22 Kentucky throttled South Carolina, 90-59, at Rupp Arena.

Terrence Jones scored 19 and grabbed a game-high 12 boards for the Wildcats (19-7, 7-5 SEC), who have won three of four. Doron Lamb added 18 points and Brandon Knight dished out nine assists to go along with his 12 points in the win.

"Biggest thing that we did today is we guarded," said Kentucky head coach John Calipari. "You know, we have to be a defensive first (team). That's what we are. Defense first, and rebound."

Malik Cooke led the Gamecocks (13-12, 4-8) with 12 points and eight boards. Ramon Galloway scored 10 as South Carolina suffered its season-high fifth- straight loss.

"It's a hard loss. He (South Carolina head coach Darrin Horn) basically told us we have to stick together as a team," said Cooke. "We didn't compete well enough as a team, we got outrebounded and stuff like that. The crowd was in it, they (Kentucky) got a lot of loose balls that we should have got."

The Wildcats opened the game on a 15-0 run and never looked back as they cruised to their 32nd consecutive home victory.

After Miller opened up the scoring with a long three-pointer, Lamb gave the Wildcats the early 15-0 lead when he made 1-of-2 from the line at 14:19. The Kentucky lead reached 20 with a DeAndre Liggins layup at 11:02, putting the game at 24-4.

The Kentucky lead remained above 20 throughout the first half, and Josh Harrellson's layup with 19 seconds remaining gave the Wildcats a 50-21 halftime lead. Miller paced Kentucky with 16 points in the first half as South Carolina was held to 21.6 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes.

The second half was never in contention.

Game Notes

Liggins finished with 11 points on 5-of-8 from the field while Harrellson grabbed nine rebounds to go along with six points in the win...Kentucky shot 21-of-27 from the line and made 11-of-20 from long range...Miller also registered three blocks.