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Kentucky cruises past Florida

Feb 8, 2012 - 4:06 AM Lexington, KY (Sports Network) - Anthony Davis had 16 points, six rebounds and four blocks, as No. 1 Kentucky cruised to a 78-58 win over No. 8 Florida on Tuesday.

Doron Lamb scored a team-high 18 while Michael Kidd-Gilchrist finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Wildcats (24-1, 10-0 SEC), who extended their nation-leading home winning streak to 49 games. They have won 16 straight overall. Marquis Teague added 12 points and 10 assists.

The Gators (19-5, 7-2) had won seven in a row entering Tuesday, but struggled from the perimeter, making just 6-of-27 three-point attempts. Kenny Boynton scored 18 points while Bradley Beal had 14 and Patric Young finished with 12.

"They missed a lot of open threes that they normally make," said Kentucky coach John Calipari. "Our goal was to try to hold them to eight threes, that's what we were shooting for."

Florida opened the game with a 6-0 run behind buckets from Erik Murphy, Boynton and Young, but the Wildcats were in control the rest of the way.

They responded with a 9-0 burst. Lamb got it started with a jumper, Teague followed with a steal and a layup, Kidd-Gilchrist hit a pair of foul shots and Kyle Wiltjer capped it with a three-pointer.

It was 17-17 midway through the opening half when Kentucky put together another run. Kidd-Gilchrist had six points and Davis finished an emphatic one- handed slam during the 10-2 spurt, which made it 27-19.

Minutes later, the advantage reached double-digits, 32-22, on Teague's three- pointer and it was 38-26 at the break courtesy of Lamb's buzzer-beating trey.

As it did at the start, Florida opened the second half with energy, getting back-to-back buckets from Young to cut its deficit to eight. Again the Wildcats responded overwhelmingly, scoring 11 straight to put the Gators away.

Teague and Darius Miller hit consecutive threes to start it before a pull-up jumper by Miller and a three-point play by Kidd-Gilchirst made it 49-30.

The margin reached 20 near the midway point on a Lamb trey and the Wildcats weren't tested the rest of the way. The last time they began an SEC campaign 10-0 was in 2005.

"Anthony Davis was getting lobs the whole night," said Boynton. "Usually when we're off we're playing defense and at least getting stops and staying in the game. I think they kept coming back at us transitioning and with offensive rebounds."

Game Notes

The Wildcats' 49-game home win streak features 48 straight wins at Rupp Arena -- including Tuesday's victory -- and one at Memorial...Kentucky improved to 69-1 under Calipari when holding an opponent to 67 points or fewer...The Wildcats have won three straight over the Gators and lead the all-time series, 91-33.