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Kentucky cruises past Western Kentucky

Mar 16, 2012 - 5:47 AM Louisville, KY (Sports Network) - The Kentucky Wildcats showed why they're the NCAA Tournament's No. 1 overall seed with an 81-66 takedown of Western Kentucky in a second round South Region matchup on Thursday.

Terrence Jones recorded game-highs with 22 points and 10 rebounds, Doron Lamb and Anthony Davis contributed 16 points apiece and Marquis Teague added 12 for the Wildcats (33-2), who led by as many as 32 in the second half.

"As a team, we wanted to come off real aggressive and just try to push the ball and get a lot more fast breaks than we were getting in the last few games," said Jones. "I think we got that just because Marquis was pushing the ball and really opening up the floor for everything to happen."

UK will face Iowa State in a third round battle on Saturday.

T.J. Price paced the Hilltoppers (16-19) with 21 points while George Fant and Kahlil McDonald donated 13 in the loss. Western Kentucky shot just 39.7 percent (25-of-63) from the field.

Kentucky scored the game's first 10 points, but Price answered by netting 10 on a 12-0 Hilltopper spurt for the lead. Price finished the first half with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor.

The rest of the Western Kentucky lineup made just 5-of-23 field goal attempts, however, and a late 11-1 UK run capped off by Jones' highlight-reel putback dunk and a swished Lamb trey put the Wildcats up 45-26 at intermission.

It was more of the same in the second half.

Kentucky scored the first five points to begin a 12-4 open to the stanza, and a 7-0 flurry a bit later gave UK its largest lead of the game at 74-42.

The Hilltoppers made nine of their final 10 shots, including four three- pointers, but they ran out of time.

"They just wouldn't quit. They kept playing. They played to the final buzzer, and that's who these young men are," said WKU head coach Ray Harper.

Game Notes

Kentucky shot 55.6 percent (30-of-54) from the field, including 61.5 percent (16-of-26) in the first half...Kentucky held a 46-26 scoring advantage in the paint...Price fouled out with 3:19 remaining in the second half.