“It was a great experience and you try not to get caught up in the minutia,” Lloyd said. “We just needed reps. … and see how guys play in spontaneous situations, I think it was great. I’m excited to break down the film. I’m sure there was a lot of really good things, and I’m sure there’s a lot of a lot of other things we can learn from as well.”
The Wildcats were playing without forward RJ Godfrey, who remains ineligible pending the Georgia “five for five” lawsuit he is a plaintiff in, while freshman center Endurance “Endi” Aiyamenkhue also did not play because of a lower leg injury.
Without Godfrey at power forward, the Wildcats started with a small lineup as they did during their exhibition trip to Lithuania in August: Derek Dixon at point guard, with Bryce James and Caleb Holt on the wings, Ivan Kharchenkov at power forward and Krivas at center.
Kharchenkov had 18 points and five rebounds, while Holt had 10 of his 17 points in the second half.
In what is the first of three McKale exhibitions after the NCAA began allowing a third exhibition game this season, Lloyd experimented heavily with his lineup as the game went on.
He inserted freshman wing Cameron Holmes for James after four minutes, then later subbed freshman forward Maksim Brnovic for Kharchenkov, and later went with JJ Mandaquit at point guard. Kharchenkov briefly left the court to go to the locker room after taking a blow to the midsection during the middle of the first half.
The Wildcats briefly played Mandaquit and Dixon together in the backcourt in the first half, expanding their lead from 23-13 to 30-26 during that time. Lloyd wound up playing 10 of his 11 available scholarship players during the first half. He played all 11 by the end of the game, plus three walk-ons.