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Box score and MVP from Kentucky vs. South Carolina

The Cats lost, but they fought valiantly to have a chance to win it at the end.

NCAA Basketball: Kentucky at South Carolina Jeff Blake-USA TODAY Sports

The Kentucky Wildcats had a 14 point lead at one point in the second half before losing 81-78 to the South Carolina Gamecocks on a buzzer-beater. For about 30 minutes, the Wildcats looks like a defensive juggernaut. For the last 10, however, everything changed and South Carolina did absolutely anything they wanted to do.

The Wildcats were led in scoring once again by Immanuel Quickley with 20. Nick Richards had the most rebounds with 7 to go with his 4 blocks. The Wildcats fought back to tie the game with just a few seconds on the clock before the Gamecocks hit a walk-off prayer of a shot to win the game.

This is a bad loss, no matter how you look at it. Hopefully Kentucky will use it as a learning opportunity and get back on track Saturday at Arkansas.

Box Score

MVP

Nick Richards spent a great deal of time on the bench tonight, but he still made the biggest impact on the game for the Wildcats. Richards only saw the floor for 23 total minutes, good for 5th on the team. However, he made the very most of his limited time.

In that time, he had 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 huge blocks. Richards continues to look like the monster that all of Big Blue Nation hoped he would be. Before this season, I think very few would have thought that the ball would be thrown into the post so much. But here we are, watching Nick Richards eat his way into the first round of the NBA Draft.

Now, if we can just get everyone else to stop taking ill-advised three-pointers, that would be great.