Cats Illustrated publisher Justin Rowland takes a deeper dive into some of the most significant or telling statistics from Kentucky's 81-69 win against Texas A&M on Tuesday night.
46 ... Kentucky's second half point total. That was the outlier for the game. Both teams struggled offensively in the first half shooting below 40% and going into the locker room with UK ahead 35-32. It was Kentucky's 46 points on 60.9% second half shooting that created the separation we saw.
24 ... Made free throws for Kentucky. The Wildcats had an 8-point advantage at the free throw line against the Aggies. They did not miss a single free throw in the first half but did miss seven in the second.
23.3% ... Texas A&M's three-point shooting. At one point the Aggies looked like they were poised to have one of their best three-point shooting games of the season. They started hot while Kentucky was not. But they finished the game 7/30 from long range because they were 0/12 from deep in the second half. So things more than balanced out after that hot start.
20 ... Jaxson Robinson's +/- in the game. He was the team's leader in that category followed by Andrew Carr and Amari Williams, who were both at +14. Everyone else had a much lower number here.
17 ... Turnovers for Kentucky. That number is a lot higher than you expect to see and it probably didn't make Mark Pope thrilled. However, Kentucky actually finished the game with more points off Texas A&M's 12 turnovers (18) than A&M had off Kentucky's (13 points).
13 ... Three-point attempts by Jaxson Robinson. There was a lid early but he kept shooting and eventually knocked down five outside shots. That was almost half of UK's total number of three point attempts for the game.
12 ... Boards for Amari Williams. Kentucky beat the Aggies by 10 on the glass and Williams was a huge reason for that. He really battled down low. Jaxson Robinson chipped in with eight boards so those two had half of Kentucky's rebounds.
11 ... Second half points for Otega Oweh. He didn't score a point in the first half but led Kentucky in second after intermission. The best part? He only shot 2/2 FG. He got to the line a lot and made 7/10 free throws.
Kentucky also had 11 fast break points in the second half, so they were able to get out and score more in transition than they did in the first half.
6 ... Turnovers committed by Lamont Butler. His previous season high in turnovers was four, so he was a lot looser with the basketball than we have customarily seen from him. He did have seven assists however.
2:38 ... That's how long the game lasted. Two hours, 38 minutes. There were 25 fouls and some reviews that pushed it longer.