2011 SEC Tournament Championship: Kentucky Leads Florida At Halftime, 34-29

Through one half of the Florida-Kentucky showdown in the SEC Tournament Championship, the victory — and the Selection Sunday spoils — could go to either of the two evenly matched teams. Kentucky leads, 34-29, but Florida’s certainly not out of this game.

The Wildcats have been the better team so far, but not by much. Brandon Knight leads the ‘Cats with two threes and eight points, and DeAndre Liggins has seven points, including four free throws. Doron Lamb, playing despite an ankle injury suffered in a Saturday semifinal, has six points coming off the bench.

Florida’s been sparked by Scottie Wilbekin to this point. Wilbekin, a 17-year-old who graduated from high school a year early to join the Gators, leads Florida with eight points, all accumulated during one burst that saw Wilbekin drill a three, get a steal, drill another three, and drive to the bucket for a rare lay-up. He’s making up for the Gators’ nearly nonexistent post game: Vernon Macklin, Alex Tyus, and Patric Young have combined for just four points.

Gators stars Chandler Parsons, Kenny Boynton, and Erving Walker have also struggled: they’re a combined six of 22 from the field. Florida, as a team, is shooting just 37.5%, and went almost six minutes without a field goal late in the half.

And yet they only trail by five, and have been authoring second half comebacks for much of the SEC schedule. So Kentucky might not want to start dreaming of cutting down the nets in Atlanta just year.