Starting At Center... Bret Bearup
Gators Lose Momentum For A While But Proceeded To
Blow UK Away
Starting the second half Kentucky trailed 30-23, but after a Eugene McDowell layin widening the Gator lead to nine, Walker went on a scoring tear. He scored eight straight points, including three dunks to pull UK within one, 32-31. However the Wildcats' woes were starting to add up.
Compiling the last 4:52 of the first period until 6:23 of the second half, Walker was the only UK starter to hit the scoring column.
Another startling statistic is that Walker scored all of UK's points from the 3:11 mark in the first half until 8:25 left in the game.
Sparked by two consecutive buckets by Moten, the Gators began to build their momentum. After a powerful Walker dunk cut the Gator lead to one, 34-33, Moten scored on a 12-footer jumper. The guard's field goal ended a three minute-plus Florida dry spell. Kentucky tried to get the points back quickly. However, Winston Bennett's 20-foot airball was converted into a Moten layup increasing the lead 38-33. From that point on the Gators were unstoppable.
Florida went further ahead when reserve Danny Sheldon connected on two from long distance, within a 23-second span, to make the score 44-35, Moten gave his team their biggest lead when the sophomore hit on 1 of 2 free throws making the count 67-51 with 22 seconds remaining.
McKinley Keeps'Cats In The Game First Half
With Walker on the sidelines for most of the first half, senior Troy McKinley's hot hand kept the game close. McKinley, who checked in for Walker, pulled UK within three (12-9) with a layup following a Roger Harden miss.
Late in the first half (7:27), McKinley proceeded to score six of Kentucky's next eight points as the Wildcats remained close, 26-21. If not for his 4 of 5 shooting from the field in th& opening period the Wildcats would have been out of the contest at halftime. McKinley finished the game with 10 points in 21 minutes of action.
FINAL STATS SHOW GATORS IN CONTROL
Besides outscoring UK, the Gators also had better marks than their opponents in: shooting percentage from the field (43.1 - 40.7), from the charity stripe (73.3 - 58.3), and rebounding (42-35).
Inside
The Locker
Room
Paul Andrews
(About taking a SEC losj at Rupp Arena)
I think it was tough, because we had the momentum going and our season was going pretty good. I think that a loss like this, where we just didn't come out and play as hard as we have been, has like deflated us. We just have to come back and practice and see if we can't get the enthusiasm back.
(About Andrew Moten's two baskets being the factor that turned the game around)
Yes, I think he was the key. We tried to shade to his side, wherever he was, and tried to prevent him from hitting the shot. Another key was that we didn't shoot well. We just couldn't hit the basket tonight. I don't know what it was. But in order for us to win we've got to be able to hit.
(About Florida)
They're a tough team; they have some really good talent and they like to play one-on-one. I just think that our defense wasn't as good as it could
have been. We just let them penetrate down the middle without getting any help. I just think that was a big key.
(About any team in the league being able to beat anyone in the SEC on a given night)
It's a big loss . . .but down the road it may not hurt us, because a lot of the teams are getting knocked off. The way it hurts our team is that we did have the enthusiasm and we were playing good team ball. We just came out today and we just didn't execute, and we didn't get the ball to Kenny (Walker) as much as we would have liked to. Overall, the team just didn't give a good effort. We just have to forget about this game and just worry about the next ones that are coming up.
1> A.V
WILDCATS
called a timeout. It was an effective call on his part, that kind of cut our momentum a little bit. But that wasn't the big turnaround.
(About needing more offensive production as a team)
The problem lies within each one of us. There isn't any outside force that's putting any pressure on us. I think it comes within. We do look for Walker on offense. I do especially, that is our strength offensively. I've got to look for him. I still believe in all our inside people and all our outside people.
(About how unpredictable the SEC
is)
That's been proven so far -- the fact that there are going to be a lot of people helping each other out this year. That's kind of encouraging even at this low point. We've been down before -- we were 1-4 -- and we feel we can come back. It's awful hard to get enthused right now. We're all disappointed. I think our fans are disappointed with this loss. Yet it's these times when we've got to stay together.
Kenny Walker
Roger Harden
(About Florida keeping their composure)
When it was 34-30, and we had things  going,   Coach  (Norm) Sloan
(About what Coach Hall had told the players following the loss to Florida)
Well everybody knew we didn't play well so there wasn't much to be said. He (Coach Hall) saw a lot of our mistakes. We didn't execute well offensively and we didn't rebound well. We knew that we had a bad game and he just emphasized on all the mistakes that we had.
(About Kentucky's upcoming schedule)
This is probably the toughest part of the SEC for us. We have to go to Georgia, who beat Florida, and we have to go to Tennessee and we've been having a lot of problems down there. So I guess the main thing for us to do right now is stand up and accept the challenge and become tough men. We dug ourselves into a little hole now and it's up to us to try to get ourselves up.
Roger Looking For Two    Sheer Concentration