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Miller leads Kentucky past Gators in SEC clash

Feb 27, 2011 - 3:09 AM Lexington, KY (Sports Network) - Darius Miller poured in a career-high 24 points, as the 22nd-ranked Kentucky Wildcats ran their home court winning streak to 33 games with a 76-68 victory over the 13th-ranked Florida Gators at Rupp Arena.

Brandon Knight added 16 points and six assists for the Wildcats (20-8, 8-6 SEC), who bounced back from a heart-breaking, 77-76 overtime loss to Arkansas on Wednesday.

Doron Lamb donated 14 points for Kentucky, which improved to 14-0 at home this season. John Calipari is 32-0 at Rupp Arena as Kentucky head coach. Saturday's win was Calipari's 500th career victory.

The Wildcats close out the regular season against Vanderbilt and Tennessee.

"Like I said, I had a lot of open looks," Miller said. "My teammates did a good job of distributing the ball when I was open. Brandon (Knight) did a good job of coming off of screens, getting the ball back to me and stuff like that. Really, like I said I had a lot of open looks."

Kenny Boynton finished with 21 points for the Gators (22-6, 11-3), who had a six-game winning streak snapped.

Chandler Parsons tallied 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for Florida, which clinched the No. 1 seed in the East for the SEC Tournament with Thursday's win over Georgia. The Gators can clinch the outright SEC East title with one more victory.

Florida concludes the regular season with games against Alabama and Vanderbilt.

"They shoot the ball incredibly here. The atmosphere here at Rupp Arena is special. They are very good here (at Rupp Arena) and are tough to beat," Parsons said.

Neither team led by more than four in a back-and-forth first half that saw Kentucky grab a 34-33 edge.

The Wildcats got a three-pointer from Lamb and a layup from Josh Harrellson in the opening minute of the second half to build a 39-33 margin.

Florida, though, got consecutive three-pointers from Boynton and a Parsons jumper to make it 41-41 with 16 1/2 minutes to play.

Ahead 48-47, Kentucky put together a 10-2 run to create some distance. Miller made back-to-back jumpers to begin the burst, which DeAndre Liggins capped with a jumper for a 58-49 lead with just over 9 1/2 minutes left.

The margin reached 11, 69-58, on Miller's three-pointer with 4:13 to go.

The Gators never got closer than six the rest of the way.

Game Notes

Florida edged Kentucky by a 70-68 final earlier this month, but the Wildcats own an 89-33 series edge over the Gators...Florida's last loss was at Mississippi State on January 29...Harrellson ended with six points and 12 rebounds for Kentucky, which shot 51.7 percent from the floor.