Game Highlights (Video)

Jim Engles Postgame Comments (Video)

NJIT at UK Action Photo Gallery


LEXINGTON, KY—Kentucky, #2 in the Associated Press national men's basketball poll, didn't take its first lead of the night until 10 minutes had passed in its game against visiting NJIT Saturday. But the Wildcats eventually built a 36-28 advantage at the half and then overpowered the Highlanders in the second half to finish with an 87-57 victory.
 
The game, which is part of the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Classic, a tournament that will continue off and on until late November, was the season opener for the visiting Highlanders. Meanwhile, Kentucky goes to 2-0, coupling the win over NJIT with a 78-65 victory over UAlbany a night earlier (NJIT and UAlbany will meet in New York's capital city on November 27).
 
Kentucky, which was 38-1 last season, falling just short of becoming the first unbeaten men's Division I team in the last 40 years when it lost to Wisconsin in the 2015 Final Four, came into the season having to replace six players taken in the 2015 NBA draft, including top pick Karl-Anthony Townes.
 
Kentucky coach John Calipari, inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame this past offseason, answered the departures by bringing in some of the best teenage players on the planet, including Skal Labissiere, a 19-year old native of Haiti who was being touted by experts as a potential Number One pick in the 2016 NBA draft before he had ever played a college game.
 
Labissiere played a dominant role in UK's win over the Highlanders Saturday night, as the lean 6-foot-11 Haitian was virtually unstoppable, scoring a game-high 26 points in just 21 minutes of play with 10-for-12 shooting from the field and 6-for-6 at the foul line. He blocked two shots and had five rebounds-three on the offensive end.
 
Indeed, dominant offensive rebounding was a key, first in the Wildcats staying close to the upset-minded Highlanders early and then pulling away, as NJIT got increasingly worn down trying to keep up with the superior physicality of the Wildcats.
 
Marcus Lee, Kentucky's 6-foot-9 junior forward, came up with seven rebounds on the offensive end as part of his total of eight boards and Kentucky finished with 22 offensive rebounds as a team.
 
NJIT had 16 defensive rebounds, which means the home team got nearly 58 percent of its misses in a sport where the defensive team has an advantage on missed shots. That enabled the Wildcats, who shot a respectable 46 percent (32-69) from the field, to extend 22 possessions after misses against the smaller Highlanders.
 
On the other end, the Highlanders managed only 7 offensive rebounds and they shot 17-for-55, just over 30 percent, so too many of their misses resulted in one-and-done possessions.
 
The total rebounding favored Kentucky, 54-23. That total was a departure from last season, when the Highlanders, who were undersized in 2014-15, as well, held their own on the boards, including in games against "big time" opponents. Last season, they outrebounded Marquette of the Big East; were even on the boards in their upset win over #16/#17 Michigan last December; and had just four fewer rebounds than #7 Villanova later that month.
 
The leading rebounder for Kentucky on Saturday was another freshman, Newark-born Isaiah Briscoe (Roselle Catholic HS), who was rated by many as the top high school point guard in the country last season. Briscoe came off the bench to play 29 minutes and posted a double-double with a game-high 12 rebounds and 11 points in his college debut (he sat out UK's opener vs. UAlbany with a bruised knee).
 
Lee, the junior forward for Kentucky, added 10 points, joining Labissiere, Briscoe and Derek Willis (11 points) as double-figure scorers for the winning Wildcats.
 
NJIT had three double-figure scorers, led by junior guard Damon Lynn's 19 points. Lynn, who was second in the nation last year with a school-record 126 three-point baskets in 33 games, connected on 4-for-9 from downtown against Kentucky.
 
Lynn, who picked up two fouls in the first half, played only half of the opening 20 minutes, yet he scored a team-high 11 points in the period.
 
The junior was called for an offensive foul with 6:22 left in the opening half with NJIT trailing 28-25 and Kentucky stretched its lead to 36-28 the rest of the way to halftime with Lynn out of the game.
 
Joining Lynn as double-figure scorers for NJIT were senior point guard Ky Howard (13 points) and junior forward Tim Coleman (10 points). Coleman also made a game-best 4 steals.
 
Facing an NJIT team emboldened by its upset win at Michigan last December 6 and by the fact that it led #7 Villanova by two points with 13:43 remaining in the game last December 20, Kentucky did not get its first lead of Saturday's game until a Tyler Ulis free throw made it 22-21, UK, with 10:05 left in the opening half.
 
That came after the two teams had set a blistering early pace, combining for 31 points, 16 by the Highlanders, in the opening five minutes. If that rate lasted the whole game, the final score would have been 128-120 in NJIT's favor.
 
The Highlanders took their biggest lead of the night at 21-15 on a layup by Terrence Smith, assisted by Osa Izevbuwa with 14:20 remaining in the first half. Smith, a junior who missed all last season with a stress fracture in his foot, finished with 4 points and a team-leading 5 rebounds in 23 minutes.
 
Both teams cooled a bit after Kentucky had taken its first lead and the score remained close, with a Howard layup at the 3:17 mark trimming the home team's advantage to 30-27.
 
But NJIT, able to get to the rim, failed to finish on four straight missed layups in a span of 81 seconds and the Wildcats took advantage, building their lead at the break to eight points, 36-28, with a Howard free throw with a second left accounting for NJIT's only point after his earlier layup.
 
Labissiere's 18 points on 7-for-7 shooting led all scorers at the break. The rest of the Wildcats were a combined 7-for-27 (26 percent), but their rebounding dominance had already started to surface, with a 25-12 advantage on the boards, leading to 10-3 in second-chance points. Lynn's 11 points topped NJIT.
 
Having gained the upper hand down the stretch in the first half, Kentucky dropped the hammer in the second half, outscoring the visitors, 51-29. By the 8:06 mark of the second half, Kentucky had matched the 36 points it scored in the opening 20 minutes, while holding NJIT to 14 in 12 minutes after the Highlanders had scored 28 in first half.
 
The teams traded baskets to begin the second half, the first by Labissiere, answered on the next possession by NJIT's Coleman. But then UK went on a 8-0 run that eventually grew to 14-2 and a 20-point lead, 52-32, with only 5:45 gone on the second half.
 
Kentucky's biggest lead of the night was 34, at 79-45 on a layup by freshman Jamal Murray with 5:31 remaining. Murray, universally regarded as the best young player in Canada, finished with 8 points after netting 19 points in the opening-night win over UAlbany.
 
NJIT continues play in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame Classic when it visits the University of South Florida Monday at 7 pm in Tampa. That game will be presented on ESPN3, with free live play-by-play audio of the game called by Matt Provence here on www.njithighlanders.com.
 
USF in the American Athletic Conference, the league that came into existence when the old Big East Conference split a few years ago. The mostly private schools, known better for basketball, kept the Big East name and the mostly public schools who play Bowl-level football took the American name. Other schools in the American, aside from USF, include northeast-based institutions such as UConn and Temple.
 
South Florida lost its opener to Troy on Friday night, 82-77.