No. 1 Kentucky 64, Florida 49: Karl-Anthony Towns and Aaron Harrison scored 13 points apiece as the Wildcats continued their pursuit of perfection with an SEC tournament quarterfinal win over the Gators in Nashville, Tenn.

Towns also pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season for top-seeded Kentucky (32-0), which faces 13th-seeded Auburn in Saturday’s semifinals. The Wildcats, who also received nine points apiece from Willie Cauley-Stein and Andrew Harrison, hit 19-of-23 free throws to enjoy a 16-point edge at the stripe and held their 14th opponent of the season to fewer than 50 points.

Jon Horford had 15 points to pace eighth-seeded Florida (16-17), which went 0-3 against Kentucky this season after a three-game sweep of the Wildcats a year ago. Eli Carter added 11 points for the Gators, but leading scorers Dorian Finney-Smith and Michael Frazier II combined for only six points on 2-of-14 shooting.

The Gators, who trailed 31-27 at intermission, pulled to within 33-31 early in the second half, but Aaron Harrison contributed five points as Kentucky reeled off a 9-0 run to take its first double-digit lead at 42-31 with a little more than 14 minutes to play. Florida refused to go quietly but never got closer than five points down the stretch.

Florida opened up hot, hurting Kentucky with dribble penetration and hitting five of its first six shots in jumping out to a 10-5 lead. The Wildcats, however, quickly regrouped for a 15-7 run to take the lead en route to the four-point edge at the break.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Kentucky, which lost to Florida 61-60 in last season’s conference title game, improved to 13-4 against the Gators in the SEC tourney. … Florida is in danger of finishing with its first non-winning season since a 14-15 campaign in 1997-98 – coach Billy Donovan’s second season in Gainesville. … Before tip-off, Kentucky was presented with the SEC regular-season trophy – its 46th in the conference’s 95 seasons.