The blue-clad crowd wasn’t as much cheering Kentucky on as it was trying to give the Wildcats a little boost. That gradual noise came over Rupp Arena a few times during Tuesday, a sign that the visitors were making the locals uncomfortable.
But South Carolina, a team with two all-time wins in this building, could only hush the 20,000-plus for so long. Eventually the hosts had to take over.
The fifth-ranked Wildcats used a big half-ending scoring run to spring a 76-48 rout of the Gamecocks.
USC dropped to 11-11 overall and 6-3 in the SEC while UK improved to 19-3 and 8-1.