Kentucky vs. Florida: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 Regular Season

Kentucky's bid for an undefeated season remains alive for another day.

While Florida provided quite a fight for 40 minutes, the Wildcats survived the upset bid and escaped with a 68-61 win to move to 23-0 on the year.

Aaron Harrison led the way with 23 points, while Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 19 points, eight rebounds and three assists. This duo combined with Willie Cauley-Stein and Devin Booker to score all but one point for Kentucky in the win.

Of course, the biggest difference in the game was free-throw shooting. The Wildcats went 21-of-22 from the line, while the Gators could only go 7-of-14.

Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports summed up the effort for the No. 1 team in the country:

Dorian Finney-Smith had a strong effort for the Gators with 16 points, but the squad had to fight down the stretch without Michael Frazier, who had 10 in the first half but was limited in the second with an ankle injury.

Florida still figured out a way to remain competitive all the way through the game before falling just short in the final moments.

While facing the No. 1 team is never easy, head coach Billy Donovan knew exactly what he was up against. He explained earlier in the week, via Garry Smits of The Florida Times-Union:

"

They have a lot of answers on the floor and a lot of different ways to beat you. They can beat you on offensive rebounding, posting up, 3-pointers, defense. ... If one part of their game is not going, they have a lot of other things to fall back on. They have perimeter shooting and a tremendous low post presence. Their talent level is better than anyone in the country. Not just our team. Everybody.

"

Despite this warning, his players were prepared against Kentucky and flexed their muscle right out of the gate. After taking a 20-11 lead, ESPN's Jay Williams was impressed with the early play:

The energy from the home crowd seemed to make a difference, but ESPN's Miles Simon explained the strategy that was helping the Gators:

As the half continued, Florida refused to go away thanks to some quality play to keep Kentucky off the scoreboard, as Seth Davis of CBS Sports noted:

Frazier was a big reason for the team's early success thanks to 10 first-half points and some added energy, as Thomas Goldkamp of 247Sports noticed:

Meanwhile, Kentucky made sure this game would not get away from it early and countered with impressive play by Towns on both ends of the floor.

Sam Vecenie of CBS Sports noted the mismatch on the floor for the freshman:

"

Karl Towns has been so terrific early in this game. Going to be really tough for FLA to handle him with DFS at C.

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) February 8, 2015"

Towns helped the Wildcats fight their way back to a 30-28 deficit at halftime, which Kyle Tucker of The Courier-Journal thought they should be happy about:

Even with the score as it was, most expected Kentucky to take over in the second half like it has many times this year, including Pat Forde of Yahoo! Sports:

A few big shots in a row by Aaron Harrison certainly helped write that script. ESPN's Jeff Goodman was impressed by the sophomore's performance:

Still, the Gators stayed competitive and took a 44-42 lead as the second half progressed. 

Cauley-Stein did find a way to quiet down the crowd, though, with this dunk, via Matt Norlander of CBS Sports:

Despite this, Florida remained in the hunt, which Goodman noted was quite a feat considering the squad's limitations down low:

As the game continued, even the NBA crowd seemed to take note, like ESPN's Stephen A. Smith:

Although Florida kept it close, free-throw shooting remained the difference. The Wildcats figured out a way to survive and escape with a hard-fought seven-point victory.

Davis gave his impression of the winning team after the game:

Kentucky will follow this game up with another difficult road matchup against LSU on Tuesday. The Tigers have struggled at points this season, but this will be another tough test in the race for an undefeated run.

Florida will have some time off before a Thursday battle against Ole Miss. With the middle of the SEC completely jumbled at the moment, every one of these games will be vital for the conference standing and potential NCAA tournament resume.

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