{"id":604451,"date":"2026-02-15T11:23:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604451\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T11:23:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:23:11","slug":"malachi-moreno-holds-his-own-vs-arguably-the-best-frontcourt-in-college-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/604451\/","title":{"rendered":"Malachi Moreno holds his own vs. arguably the best frontcourt in college basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aseaofblue.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Kentucky Wildcats<\/a> fell on the road to the Florida Gators by a final score of 92-83. In a game of runs, the Cats found themselves down 15 at one point, and cut it to two early in the second half. The Gators\u2019 big men gave the Wildcats some problems, but Mark Pope\u2019s team held strong, especially Malachi Moreno.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Playing against arguably the best frontcourt in America \u2014 Thomas Haugh, Alex Condon, and Rueben Chinyelu<br \/>\u2014 Moreno really held his own in the paint. The Kentucky native finished up Saturday\u2019s game with a hard-fought double-double: 11 points, 11 rebounds, and a perfect 3-3 from the charity stripe for Moreno.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Playing just 21 minutes due to foul trouble, Moreno really showed out against a group of NBA-level big men. Moreno and the Wildcats\u2019 big men kept Condon, Haugh, and Chinyelu in check for the most part on Saturday, despite being -8 in the rebounding margin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Moreno recorded his third double-double of the season and has been a major bright spot for the Wildcats this season. Playing a major role and contributing heavily, Moreno has been popping up all over draft boards due to his knack for rebounds and fundamental play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The Wildcats fall to 17-8 on the season and currently 8-4 in SEC play. They\u2019ll be back in action on Tuesday night against the Georgia Bulldogs. Tip-off is set for 9:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Kentucky Wildcats fell on the road to the Florida Gators by a final score of 92-83. In&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,38124,244,8582,231,772,1544],"class_list":{"0":"post-604451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-kentucky-wildcats-basketball-news","11":"tag-kentucky-wildcats-basketball","12":"tag-kentucky-wildcats-news","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-basketball","15":"tag-ncaab"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116074394692689814","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}