Game notes of UK’s 82-61 win over South Carolina

- No. 2 UK (27-1, 12-1 Southeastern Conference) defeated South Carolina (14-13, 5-8 SEC) 82-61, to move one step closer to clinching their 44th SEC Championship in school history.

- The Cats were led by junior forward Patrick Patterson who scored 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds. He shot 10-of-12 from the field. Patterson had double-doubles in each of his two games before Thursday night’s contest, and continues his recent hot streak.

- Patterson moved into 19th place on UK’s all-time scoring list. The Huntington, W.V., native has 1,442 points.

- Freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins recorded his 17th double-double of the season with 19 points and 11 rebounds.

- Cousins now holds the UK freshman season rebounding record with 285 boards.

- Freshman guard John Wall was the third UK player to score in double figures. Wall finished with 12 points, five rebounds and four assists. Wall also had a game-high six turnovers.

- Wall broke the UK freshman season record with 133 free throws made. He was 4-for-4 from the line on Thursday night. Wall already holds the freshman assists record (and continues to strengthen that number) and is now third on the UK freshman scoring list.

- After being outrebounded in their meeting on Jan. 26, UK outrebounded the Gamecocks 47-31, and scored 56 of their 82 points in the paint. South Carolina scored 30 points in the paint.

- South Carolina senior guard Devan Downey was 9-of-29 in his first meeting with the Cats this season in scoring a game-high 30 points. Downey was the game’s leader in points again this time around, scoring 26 points on 9-of-25 shooting. The difference is instead of a six-point South Carolina win, the Cats came out on top by 21.

- UK shot a blazing 57.1 percent from the field in the second half. South Carolina shot 35.9 percent. For the game, UK shot an even 50 percent, while the Gamecocks shot 38.8 percent.

- South Carolina never led in the game.

- Attendance was 24,355.