No. 1 Kentucky 74, Mississippi State 56: Freshman Trey Lyles scored a career-high 18 points as the Wildcats pulled away in the second half to remain perfect and clinch at least a share of the SEC title.
Aaron Harrison scored 16 points and Devin Booker added 14 off the bench for Kentucky (28-0, 15-0 SEC), whose 28 consecutive wins are the most in a single season in program history. Karl-Anthony Towns contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Wildcats.
Fred Thomas scored 14 points and Craig Sword added 10 for Mississippi State (12-16, 5-10), which has lost three straight and five of its last six. Gavin Ware added nine points and nine rebounds for the Bulldogs, who were 2-of-11 from 3-point range and 16-of-27 from the foul line.
Mississippi State hung around early in the second half and was within 41-37 with 15 minutes left, but Kentucky reeled off a 24-4 run over the next eight minutes to turn it into a rout. Booker scored 10 of his 14 after halftime and Harrison had nine of his 16 after the break.
The Wildcats led by as many as 14 points in the first half after five points from Lyles in the span of a minute. The Bulldogs trimmed the deficit to six before Tyler Ulis hit a long 3-pointer just before the buzzer to make it 36-27 at the break.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Sword became the 34th player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. … Mississippi State has lost 10 straight games against ranked opponents dating to 2012. … Towns has recorded four double-doubles in his past seven games.
Kentucky | Mississippi St. | |
Trey Lyles 18 | Scoring | Fred Thomas 14 |
Tyler Ulis 4 | Assists | Trivante Bloodman 2 |
Karl-Anthony Towns 10 | Rebounds | Gavin Ware 9 |
Trey Lyles 4 | Free Throws Made | Craig Sword 6 |
Trey Lyles 1 | Steals | I.J. Ready 2 |
Willie Cauley-Stein 2 | Blocks | Fallou Ndoye 1 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Kentucky | 74 | 49.1 | 6-13 | 12-13 | 15 | 34 | 9 | 2 | 9 |
Mississippi St. | 56 | 37.3 | 2-11 | 16-27 | 6 | 28 | 2 | 5 | 8 |