Monmouth-NJ Hawks vs Kentucky Wildcats Match Player Stats On Dec 09, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Dec 9, 2017

NEW YORK -- No. 8 Kentucky got career-high scoring efforts from three freshmen in a 93-76 rout of Monmouth Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

Hamidou Diallo scored 23 points, P.J. Washington scored 20 and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander 15 for Kentucky (8-1), which won for the sixth straight time.

Monmouth (3-7) has lost three in a row.

Kentucky shot 51.7 percent and won the rebounding battle 47-33.

Monmouth shot 35.7 percent. Freshman guard Deion Hammond came off the bench to lead the Hawks with 19 points and junior guard Micah Seaborn added 18.

UK wasted no time putting the game out of reach by blowing out to a 22-8 lead from the opening tip on the strength of an 11-0 run. Five players got in on the scoring, led by Gilgeous-Alexander and Diallo with three points each.

UK then used a 13-0 run late in the first half to grab a 47-22 lead. Three-pointers by Gilgeous-Alexander and Quade Green led the run. A dunk by Washington with 1:38 gave UK's its largest first-half lead of 25 points at 52-27.

Kentucky led 54-31 at halftime. The 54 points was the most scored in a first half since 60-39 against Ole Miss on Dec. 29, 2016.

Washington topped UK in the first half with a perfect 16 points. He was 4-for-4 from the field, including 1-for-1 from 3-point range, and 7-for-7 from the free throw line. Gilgeous-Alexander added 10 off the bench.

As a team, Kentucky shot 58.6 percent in the first half, while limiting Monmouth to 32.2 percent. The Wildcats more than doubled up Monmouth in rebounding 27-13.

Monmouth was led by Seaborn with 11 points.

Kentucky's run of games against mid-majors has ended and the competition ramps up significantly with Virginia Tech, UCLA and Louisville leading up to the SEC opener against Georgia.

NOTES: Kentucky sophomore F Sacha Killeya-Jones sat out Saturday's game with an ankle sprain ... UK freshman G Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 2.5 steals per game, a pace just off the record set by Rajon Rondo in 2005 ... The game at Madison Square Garden was a reunion of sorts for the Monmouth coaching staff. In 1988, head coach King Rice played for North Carolina and assistant coach Jamal Meeks played for Indiana when the two teams met in the Preseason NIT, a game Carolina won 106-92 ... It took G Micah Seaborn just 75 games to reach 1,000 points scored, fourth fastest in Monmouth history.