SEC Opening Night Recap: Kentucky and Vanderbilt’s First Half Follies
Posted by Gerald Smith on November 12th, 2011Kentucky 108, Marist 58
The Kentucky team that coach John Calipari claims could be beaten a hundred other NCAA teams appeared in the first half of their contest versus a physical Marist team. Perhaps the team stayed up too late worried sick about Terrence Jones, who had quite the Thursday night on his own. The Red Foxes used forward Andy Kemp to facility an inside-out game that sliced and shot-over the sluggish Wildcats defense. Calipari said after the game that without Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (11 points, five rebounds and nearly every positive defensive play in 1st half) and Anthony Davis (ten points, five rebounds in 1st half), “we are down at halftime.”
Kentucky forward Anthony Davis' ability to dunk nearly any lob pass let the Wildcats stay ahead of Marist. (Photo via 247 Sports.)
In the second half, as Marist coach Chuck Martin said afterwards, “the No. 2 team in the country showed up.” With ten blocks and five steals and eight forced turnovers in the second half, Kentucky held Marist to just 22 total points on 17.1% FG. Kentucky’s Davis finished with 23 points and should have a special stat created for him called, “Points Not Scored On Dunks.” Wildcat point guard Marquis Teague finished with 16 points, four assists and three turnovers.
Jones did not start the game but finished with eight points and nine rebounds. After the game, he spoke about the controversial accident and how it physically affected his game:
Teammate Anthony Davis spoke about Jones’ accident, an accidental collision with teammate Doron Lamb and how he thrives with lob passes:
Vanderbilt 78, Oregon 64
With such an experienced roster, it was strange watching Vanderbilt struggle against Oregon’s 2-3 matchup zone early in the first half. Vandy’s senior guard John Jenkins just couldn’t get going (eight points on 3-10 FG, 2-8 3FG). Senior guard Brad Tinsley helped pick up Jenkins’ slack with 11 first-half points and senior forward Jeffery Taylor (9 first-half points) started breaking down the zone with his baseline cuts.
The Commodores weren’t known for their defense last season. In this game, they stepped up their pressure man-to-man and started forcing turnovers. Vanderbilt extended the lead to 20 points with an early run in the 2nd half fueled by a flock of forced and unforced Oregon errors. The Ducks’ 20 turnovers — aided by Vandy’s 11 steals — counteracted Vandy’s quite non-Vandy 40.9% FG shooting for the game.
The fast break opportunities caused by turnovers sparked Jenkins, who finished the game with 24 points (8-19 FG, 7-16 3FG) and over 1,000 points in his career. Taylor posted a double-double (21 points, 11 rebounds). Forwards Steve Tchiengang (four points, three rebounds, two blocks) and Rod Odom (three points, eight rebounds, four fouls) weren’t too impressive trying to fill the open center position caused by Festus Ezeli‘s suspension and injury. Freshman center Josh Henderson played just 11 minutes but was just as effective as Tchiengang and Odom (four points, four rebounds).
