Kentucky Wildcats Sleepwalk to Victory Over Cincinnati Bearcats

By Adam Hughes | Mar 21, 2015

How do you prepare for a third-round match-up with a Number-8 seed in the NCAA Tournament when you’re a historically potent Number-1 seed? For John Calipari and his Kentucky Wildcats, the answer is that you sleep in, apparently. That may feel like a swipe at the Cincinnati Bearcats, but it’s hard to argue with the strategy that led Kentucky to a 64-51 third-round win on Saturday and raised their season record to 36-0.

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After a late-night win over 16 seed Hampton on Thursday, Calipari’s main directive to his charges was, “Get some sleep.”

The extra winks seemed to have done the trick, as Kentucky had little trouble dispatching a Bearcats team that needed overtime to beat Purdue earlier on Thursday.

While UC hung tight for the first few minutes of the game, building an 11-6 lead, they fell behind by seven at half. Cincinnati managed to maintain that deficit through most of the second before Kentucky pulled away late.

Both teams struggled from the field, with Kentucky shooting 37% and Cincinnati, just 32%.

The Bearcats’ Troy Caupain and Kentucky’s Aaron Harrison led all scorers with 13. Cincinnati did manage to out-rebound Kentucky, surprising considering the Bearcats’ struggles on the boards against Purdue and Kentucky’s defensive strength.

With the win, Kenutcky becomes the first NCAA Division I team ever to run their record to 36-0 and will play the winner of the Maryland-Virginia game.

This was Cincinnati’s 29th NCAA Tournament appearance.

Next: Do Wildcats Eat Bearcats? Kentucky Next After Cincinnati Beats Purdue

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