Kentucky took the lead away from Illinois State seven minutes into the game and rolled to a 96-70 non-conference win at Rupp Arena on Friday night.
Antonio Reeves led four Wildcats on double-figure scoring with a game-high 27 points. Rob Dillingham followed with 16 points as the eighth-ranked Wildcats improved to 10-2.
D.J. Wagner tallied 14 and Reed Sheppard tossed in 11.
Kentucky will begin Southeastern Conference play at Florida (10-3 on Jan. 6. Tipoff is 12:30 pm.
At Lexington
SCORE BY HALVES:
ISU (8-5)…..30 40 – 70
UK (10-2)….45 51 – 96
Scoring:
Illinois State (70) – Myles Foster 7(1) 3-5 20; Kendall Lewis 2 4-5 8; Malachi Poindexter 2(3) 0-0 13; Dalton Banks 2(2) 1-4 11; Darius Buford 4(1) 2-2 13; Jordan Davis 1 0-0 2; and Johnny Kinziger 0(1) 0-0 3. Totals: 18(8) 10-18 70.
Kentucky (96) – Aaron Bradshaw 1 0-0 2; Tre Mitchell 1(1) 3-4 8; Justin Edwards 3(1) 0-0 9; Antonio Reeves 6(4) 3-3 27; D.J. Wagner 4(2) 0-0 14; Rob Dillingham 4(1) 5-5 16; Reed Sheppard 2(2) 1-1 11; Ugonna Onyenso 2 0-2 4; and Jordan Burks 2 1-2 5. Totals: 25(11) 13-17 96.
Next up: Kentucky (10-2) at Florida (10-3), 12:30 pm, Jan. 6.