Photo by Mark Cornelison.
Three points on UK’s 84-52 win over Central Michigan last night:
- 1. At least from a statistical standpoint, UK’s defense was much-improved over last Saturday’s nipping of Florida Atlantic. The Cats allowed an average of 1.05 points per possession against the Owls. That was down to 0.78 last night. True, Central Michigan is not as talented as Florida Atlantic, it did not appear. The Owls made eight of 17 three-pointers on Saturday, where the Chips made just five of 18 last night. But after CMU started the game making seven of 16 shots, the Chips cooled considerably, making just 11 of 42 the remainder of the game.
- 2. UK’s turnover count continues to improve. The Cats were not quite as careful with the basketball as they were on Saturday. Billy Gillispie’s club committed a turnover just once every 9.09 possessions versus the Owls. The figure was once every 5.4 last night. But there were 70 possessions in the CMU game, compared to 63 against FAU as Mike Jarvis’ team milked the clock. Kentucky’s points per possession figured out to 1.20 last night, compared to 1.195 on Saturday. After shooting 53.6 percent last night, the Cats have shot better than 50 percent in each of their last three games.
- 3. Perry Stevenson played 23 miutes last night without scoring. The junior forward took just one shot, a miss. He did grab four rebounds, make three assists and blocked two shots. But it was the first time since Jan. 12, 2008, in the double-overtime win over Vandy, that the Louisiana native has failed to score. The last UK player to play more minutes without scoring was Derrick Jasper, who played all 40 minutes in UK’s NCAA loss to Marquette without scoring a point.
