Cason Wallace scored a career-best 27 points, matched his career high of nine assists and added four steals to lead No. 19 Kentucky to an easy 88-68 victory over Florida A&M on Wednesday night in nonconference play at Lexington, Ky.
Wallace also made a career-best five 3-pointers as the Wildcats (8-3) rebounded from a season-low point total in their previous game when they lost 63-53 to then-No. 16 UCLA.
Oscar Tshiebwe registered 14 points and eight rebounds, CJ Fredrick scored 12 points and Antonio Reeves added 10 points for Kentucky.
Jaylen Bates scored a career-best 21 points for Florida A&M (2-8), which lost its second straight game. Dimingus Stevens added 13 points and Jordan Tillmon had 10.
Kentucky shot 52.5 percent from the field, including a stellar 13 of 23 (56.5 percent) from 3-point range.
The Rattlers made 52 percent of their shots and were a solid 9-for-16 from behind the arc.
Kentucky held a commanding 37-18 rebounding edge, including 19-6 on the offensive boards.
The Rattlers were down 21 with under 11 minutes left before going on a 14-0 burst. Tillmon, Peyton Williams, Byron Smith and Bates all made 3-pointers as the Florida A&M deficit was cut to 69-62 with 6:10 left.
Tshiebwe scored in the interior 19 seconds later to end the Rattlers’ run. Smith responded with a short jumper to cut it back to seven, but Wallace’s layup and two free throws by Tshiebwe pushed Kentucky’s lead to 75-64 with 4:51 remaining.
Tshiebwe made two more free throws to make it 82-66 with 2:22 left and the Wildcats closed out the triumph.
Bates scored a basket 22 seconds into the contest before Kentucky rattled off the next 16 points. Sahvir Wheeler capped the burst with a 3-pointer with 15:47 left.
A three-point play by Jacob Toppin elevated Kentucky’s lead to 42-27 with 1:14 left before Florida A&M scored the final five points of the half to trail 42-32.
Early in the second half, the Wildcats scored seven straight points to increase their lead to 51-34 with 17:06 left.
Wallace buried a 3-pointer to push the lead to 20 for the first time, 62-42 with 13:20 remaining. His fourth of the game made it 69-48 with 11:13 remaining.
–Field Level Media