LEXINGTON — Say what you will about Kentucky’s largely unseasoned roster, which features eight freshmen and two sophomores. Just don’t say the youthful Wildcats aren’t quick learners.

In its first high-profile matchup of the season, Nov. 14 against top-ranked Kansas in Chicago, UK held a 14-point lead with 16:21 to play. The Jayhawks roared back to win, 89-84.

Tuesday night at Rupp Arena, No. 12 Kentucky held a 14-point lead over No. 8 Miami … with 16:04 to play.

The Wildcats didn’t make the same mistake twice, stepping on the Hurricanes’ throats and not allowing the visitors to rally, cruising to a 95-73 win.

"We played it as an eight-point finish," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "We wanted to keep shortening the game and make baskets. We are still not quite there. We didn't finish off. We got too late in the shot clock.

"Some of them, you want to go and shoot it and rebound it and kick it out and go again. And now you just used the minute off the clock. They don't have a chance to beat you."

The way UK (6-1) played in the second half, Miami couldn't muster much of a challenge — even if Calipari still was frustrated with his team.

While the victory featured well-distributed offense — five Kentucky players scored in double figures — none were better than the home state kid, Reed Sheppard. The freshman from London, the son of a pair of UK legends — his father, Jeff Sheppard, won two national titles with the Wildcats and was the Final Four Most Outstanding Player in 1998, while his mother, Stacey Reed Sheppard, left Lexington among the women’s program’s career leaders in numerous categories — put on a show.

Sheppard had a game-high 21 points, making 8 of 13 shots from the field, including a 5-for-9 effort behind the 3-point arc. Each time he sank another shot, the adoring crowd at Rupp grew louder and louder, reaching decibel levels heretofore unseen this season.

"I do everything I can to help my team to make the right play," Sheppard said. "With these dudes around me, it is easy. We were hitting shots left and right tonight, and everyone was passing and having fun.”

Thanks to Sheppard’s superlative showing, and the rest of his teammates, they made sure the Hurricanes’ (5-1) only hopes for a come-from-behind win resided in the dreams they’ll have on the flight home to Florida.

"It shows how disciplined we are as a team now," said freshman wing Justin Edwards, who had 11 points and two steals Tuesday. "After the Kansas game, we focused on closing out games. Something that we do when we get to the four-minute mark, we put up four fingers, (which represents), like, 'Just close out the game.'"

That UK won so decisively — rendering the marquee matchup in the inaugural ACC/SEC Challenge a snoozer — belied how competitive the contest was in the opening 20 minutes. The contest featured three ties, three lead changes and nearly as many shifts in momentum.

Kentucky jumped to a 10-point lead, 21-11, at the 11:39 mark of the first half. Miami took that salvo and smiled, as it volleyed back and authored an 18-2 run in less than four minutes to take a 29-23 advantage. But the Wildcats had a response of their own, ending the half on an 8-0 run to head into intermission up 42-37.

"(We were) just sticking to the game plan," Edwards said of Miami's 18-2 run. "Just know this is a game of runs. Everybody's gonna have their run. We just stayed together."

That was evident in the second half, which was all Kentucky: It outscored Miami 53-36 to put an exclamation point — one that might as well have been written in 100-point font — on its best win of the season. One that likely will pay dividends come Selection Sunday when the committee begins seeding teams and UK’s 22-point nonconference win over a top-10 foe — and coming off its first Final Four appearance in 2022-23, one season after it reached the Elite Eight for the first time in program history — pops off the page.

Tuesday’s lopsided win, in which UK exhibited no mercy against a veteran club, resembled UK’s previous six outings this season in that the hosts’ offensive excellence was on display at nearly all times. (The Wildcats did have a three-minute scoreless stretch in the first half, after all, so it wasn’t perfect.) Kentucky surpassed the 81-point mark for the seventh time in as many games, the first time the program has accomplished that feat since the 1970-71 campaign, in the twilight years of legendary coach Adolph Rupp. The man the building was named after would have appreciated Tuesday’s performance offensively.

But Rupp also would have admired the Wildcats’ improvement defensively. Kentucky had allowed 81.5 points per game in its four previous contests entering Tuesday.

"I feel like some of the early games, we (weren't) as locked in as we should (have been)," said senior guard Antonio Reeves, who had 18 points and five rebounds. "I feel like this game, everybody dialed in."

A focused Kentucky club — a young outfit, but a group still getting better by the day and that should add reinforcements soon in the form of multiple 7-footers — should be a scary prospect to the rest of college basketball.

The Wildcats, Edwards said, proved that Tuesday night.

"(This) was a statement game," he said. "Going into the game, (we wanted) to show that we belong. I feel like, honestly, we're one of the top teams in the country."

C.L. Brown column: Do-it-all Kentucky freshman Reed Sheppard flips script on famous UK father

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball: Wildcats rout Miami in ACC/SEC Challenge