“This trade must be the worst.” The NBA delivers terrible news to a Kentucky star at the most inconvenient moment.

The Kentucky Wildcats have finished the first one. After a sluggish start to their NCAA Tournament opening, coach Mark Pope’s squad defeated Troy 76-57 in the Fiserv Forum on Friday night.

For the first time in six years, the Cats are just one victory away from advancing past the opening weekend of March Madness.

UK unleashed a 16-0 run in the second half — with the first 15 of the points in that flurry coming from bench players Collin Chandler and Brandon Garrison — to open up a 61-39 lead and basically put the game out of reach for the 14-seeded Trojans, who had kept things relatively close up until that point. Troy went nearly six minutes without scoring as Kentucky went on its 16-0 run.

Pope called a timeout with 5:39 left after the Trojans responded with nine points in a row to cut UK’s lead to 61-48. However, Koby Brea made a 3-pointer to end the run, and Otega Oweh slammed in transition to give the Cats a 66-48 advantage. Soon after, Oweh made another basket, bringing Kentucky’s lead back to 20 points.

Oweh led the Wildcats with 20 points. UK’s leading scorer for the season also had eight rebounds and a team-high six assists. Andrew Carr tallied 13 points and three blocks. Brea also had 13 points. Garrison joined them in double figures with 13 points, and Amari Williams had a team-high 13 rebounds, plus four assists. Chandler scored all nine of his points in a span of less than two minutes to help get the 16-0 run started.