LEXINGTON, Kentucky _ Kentucky punctuated this week's John Calipari dive into alliterative motivation Saturday. Not only did UK's coach get the fight and finish he requested, the Cats seemed to have fun doing it in an 83-52 victory at home against Fairleigh Dickinson.
EJ Montgomery and freshman Keion Brooks set career highs in scoring. Montgomery had 25 points. Brooks scored 15.
Nick Richards posted his fourth double-double in the last seven games. He had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Kentucky flirted with a double-double in dunks and layups. The Cats had eight dunks and nine layups.
The end result looked like you'd expect how an eight-ranked team would defeat an opponent stats savant Ken Pomeroy ranked 266th in the nation.
Kentucky, which gained its 600th victory in Rupp Arena and improved to 7-1 this season, defended. That had been another of Calipari's points of emphasis.
Of the nation's best teams, the UK coach said, "Most of them have veterans. That's what it is. You've got to guard and you got to have some veteran leadership."
With that, Calipari added that Kentucky was far from a finished product.
"We have a long way to go," he said Thursday. "Like, a long way to go. And individual players have a long way to go."
Meanwhile, Fairleigh Dickinson fell to 2-6 and might not have given Coach Greg Henenda the kind of competitive game he saw as possible.
"Hopefully, you'll get a hard-playing athletic team that competes," he said. "That's going to fight hard and has the ability to get the ball to the basket pretty quickly. It's going to have to be a little under-sized against the Wildcats. ... It'll be a competitive game. But, obviously, we have a tall task in front of us."
Montgomery led Kentucky to a 43-23 halftime lead. His 14 points in the opening 20 minutes were just two shy of the career-high 16 he scored against UAB last weekend.
The combined length of the seven shots (in 10 attempts) that Montgomery would not have extended far beyond the three-point line. He had three dunks, two layups, a post-up and a turnaround jumper from the foul line.
Montgomery's work around the basket helped UK outscore Fairleigh Dickinson 28-12 in the paint.
UK also enjoyed a 12-3 advantage in second-chance points which was fueled by seven offensive rebounds.
Kentucky did not need much time to establish its superiority. The Cats took the lead for good with 17:44 left in the first half when Richards scored on a post-up while being fouled.
UK's only three-point basket (in eight attempts) built the first double-digit lead. Immanuel Quickley hit with 9:03 left to put Kentucky ahead 23-13.
The margin reached its zenith at 35-13 when Tyrese Maxey drove the baseline and hit a reverse layup that drew an appreciative ooh from the crowd.
That capped a 12-0 run that featured three straight putbacks that surely answered Calipari's repeated calls for more offensive rebounding.
Montgomery equaled his previous career high with a dunk set up by a Hagans pass with 17:08 left.
On UK's next possession, his put-back made the lead 52-29 and gave him 18 points.
Brooks took a turn in the spotlight in the next six minutes. He scored nine of UK's next 13 points. He capped this spree with a three-pointer that put Kentucky ahead 65-35. It also gave him 13 points, which eclipsed his previous career high of 11 scored against Eastern Kentucky.
