PAGE 17    THE CATS'  PAUSE, DECEMBER 31, 1377
Wildcats Explode For 104-65 Win Over Iona; Prepare For Irish
"I feel like Santa Claus. I just came in and gave Kentucky a nice Christmas present," laughed the jolly young fellow from the Big Apple.
Speaking was Coach Jim Valvano of Iona College after his Gaels had just been beaten 104-65 by top-ranked Kentucky before the usual capacity crowd of 23,472 at Rupp Arena last Friday night.
But it wasn't all that easy as the Wildcats raced out to a perfect 7-0 pre-Christmas record. In fact, little Iona gave the Cats a small scare midway in the first half.
Kentucky blitzed out to a 7-0 lead, but after Valvano had calmed down his boys from New York, the Gaels stormed back, whipping Kentucky's man-to-man defense with ease and took command of a 12-11 score with 13:33 left in the first half on on Glenn Vickers' lay-up.
The Cats, thanks to brilliant play from the bench, stormed ahead by 18 at the half as the reserve Cats outscored the visitors 23-7 in the final eight minutes of the half.
It was homecoming, somewhat, for a young man who has never attended the University of Kentucky and it was a disappointing one for him.
Jeff Ruland, the 6-10 Iona rookie and one of the best in the country, showed why Kentucky recruited him so heavily as he scored his team's first eight points and netted a game-high 24 for the contest.
But his match-up much of the game showed why Kentucky didn't cry so much at the loss of Ruland.
Freshman Chuck Aleksinas gave another fine exhibition for Wildcat fans while scoring 12 points and four rebounds in only 17 minutes of action. Ruland had six rebounds in 37 minutes of playing time and hit 10 of 17 from the field. Aleksinas hit on three of five from the field.
Even at that, Wildcat fans had to dream a little of what might have been had Kentucky landed both Aleksinas and Ruland. As a team, they would have been awesome, maybe even unbeatable.
It was when Aleksinas entered the game that Kentucky went to war. In fact, the big Easterner (facing regional folks for the second time in a week) entered the game with Kentucky keading 23-19 and 6:56 left in the half.
He powered his way for eight points in the final seven minutes as Kentucky surged ahead by 44-26. The other half of the big surge late in the first half was James Lee, the strongman.
Lee tossed in seven points in a fine display of ballhandling and maneuvering, as the UK second unit outshined the starters.
In the second half, Jack Givens went to work with Mike Phillips and the remainder of the roster.
The big change in UK's defense
turned the trick in the first twenty minutes. After Iona repeatedly beat UK inside against the man-to-man defense, the Cats switched to a 1-3-1 zone defense and Iona appeared to have never seen such a defense before.
During a twelve-and-a-half minute stretch, Iona could only muster three field goals as Kentucky erased a 12-11 deficit to take command of a 41-22 lead. It was all over but the final score.
Joe Hall's charges used their usual second half blitz to quickly wipe out any hopes of a comeback for Iona.
Kentucky ripped off ten points to five points for Iona in the first three minutes of play and Iona knew it was
all over.
Givens went to war in the second half and scored 12 of his 18 points on the night as Hall cleared the bench several times during the final twenty minutes.
It was a festive time for the Cats, a time when Joe Hall sent every player home for Christmas with a smile. Everyone got into the action and walk-on Chris Gettelfinger scored the first bucket of his UK career on a lay-up with just sixteen seconds left in the game, capping the Cats' 104 point total for the evening.
Givens won game scoring honors for the Cats with 18 points followed by Lee with 17, and husky Mike Phillips with
	IONA							
PLAYER	FG	FT	REB	PF	TPS	A	TO	MIN
D. Brown	4-7	4-6	6	5	12	1	2	30
J. CcCal1	0-7	2-4	4	4	2	1	4	33
J. Ruland	10-17	4-5	6	3	24	1	5	37
G. Vickers	5-9	0-0	3	1	10	4	4	35
J. Sk i ba	1-5	0-0	2	3	2	2	5	27
K.  Hami1 ton	2-7	3-5	1	2	7	4	]	15
K. Crawford	0-0	0-2	0	0	0	0	0	2
L. George	0-1	0-0	0	ill	0	0	I	6
T. Richardson	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	1	2
C. Alberti	o-o	0-0	0	0	0	1	0	1
J. Lytwyn	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0	0	3
D. Burns	0-0	0-0	0	b	0	0	0	1
K. Vesey	3-4	2-3	8	2	8	0	2	8
Team Rebounds			1					
TOTALS	25-57	15-25	32	21	65	14	25	200
	KENTUCKY							
PLAYER	FG	FT	REB	PF	TPS	A	TO	MIN
J. G i vens	9-17	0-0	7	3	18	3	2	28
R. Robey	3-6	0-0	4	5	6	0.	3	13
M. Phi 11 ips	6-8	3-4	3	3	15	0	1	19
K. Macy	3-8	0-0	5	3	6	9	1	27
T. Claytor	3-7	0-0	0	0	6	1	2	17
C. Gettelfinger	1-2	0-0	1	0	2	0	0	2
D. Casey	3-5	0-0	3	1	6	7	1	16
J.  Sh i d1er	3-5	2-2	1	1	8	0	0	13
T. Stephens	0-3	0-0	0	1	0	2	0	5
J. Lee	7-12	3-4	9	4	17	2	1	26
F. Cowan	3-6	2-2	4	1	8	b	1	5
S. Cou rts	o-o	0-0	1	].	0	0	pn	4
C. Aleksinas	3-5	6-9	k	3	12	1	0	17
L. Willi ams	0-0	0-0	2	2	0-	0	0	8
Team Rebounds			4					
TOTALS	44-84	6-21	48	28	104	25	12	200
IONA COLLEGE		26		39				65
UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY		44		60		-	--	104
Officials: Ken	Lauderda	|e and	Bob	Olah				
Attendance: 23	472  (Rupp Arena Capacity)							
15 in a strong second half. Phillips has really been coming on strong the last two weeks and could be the big difference down the stretch. Aleksinas was the other Wildcat in double figures with 12.
Ironically, Rick Robey, Kyle Macy and Truman Claytor, all starters, did not finish in double figures -- mostly because Robey played only thirteen!? minutes, Macy dished out nine assist** and Claytor played only seventeen* minutes.
Behind Ruland iu scoring for Ic was Dave Brown with 12 and Vicker with 10 points.
Kentucky won the boards' battle bj a tally of 48-32 with Lee pacing the Cats with 9, followed by Givens with and Macy with 5. Reserve Kevin Ves< was tops for Iona with 8.
The Cats continued to hit well froa the field, canning better than fif percent each half for a game percent-; age of 52.4 on 44 of 84 attempts. At the free throw line, the Cats hit 16 of 21 fo* 76.2 percent.
Iona hit 43.9 percent from the file on 25 of 57 attempts, and 15 of 25 frora^ the charity line for 60.0 percent.
Perhaps most satisfying to Hall wasf the turnover department, where Ken-, tucky made only 12 mistakes to 25 for,, Iona. And the 25 assists credited to Kentucky is an indication of the team'' play Hall praised following the contest.
Iona, now 7-2 on the season plays host to Fairleigh Dickinson University Friday night in New Rochell, New York. Iona's only other loss of the season was to Holy Cross on the road by a score of 105-83.
Kentucky now prepares for its big annual shoot-out with Notre Dame this Saturday at Louisville's Freedom Hall. Tip-off is 4:05 p.m., and it will be televised live nationally over the NBC television network.
Hall has announced that there will be a public work-out of the Kentucky team at 3 p.m. Friday at Freedom Hall and the public is invited, free of charge. The Wildcats will work out from 3 p.m. til 4 p.m. and then be available for autographs following the sessions.
As an added treat for the UK fans, attractive basketball cards with a player's individual picture and UK's schedule on the reverse side, will be distributed free after the practice.
Following the Notre Dame game, it will be into the thick of the Southeastern Conference race as the Cats open defense of their co-crown two days later.
Monday, Kentucky plays host to Vanderbilt at Rupp Arena. Next weekend, the Cats must face a crucial road trip to Florida and Auburn, one which could be the most important of the year to the Cats.