The Kentucky Wildcats were back in action on Friday night after cruising to an 85-57 win in the season-opener on Tuesday against Manhattan, a game where the offense really found its groove after taking some time to get going in their three exhibition games.

Kentucky went into this one looking to take care of business. It was a close one in the first half as James Madison used their shooting to stay with the Wildcats, along with just committing one turnover. We went into halftime all tied up at 39. In the second half, it took a while for Kentucky to gain control, but an 13-2 halfway through the second helped them get a little bit of cushion heading into the final stretch, leading 73-65 with 7:26 left. A night where Milan Momcilovic was off, it was his teammates picking things up, as they then pulled away for the 89-80 victory, with Zoom Diallo, Alex Wilkins, Justin McBride, and Mason Williams all in double figures. Let's take a look at some takeaways from the action in Rupp Arena on Friday night.

Zoom Diallo has his breakout game

After struggling in the three exhibitions, Zoom Diallo opened the regular season putting up 12 points. He added to that on Friday when he had a very efficient outing against James Madison, scoring 16 points on 7-11 shooting, along with two assists, three rebounds and zero turnovers. It was really encouraging to see fans get behind him early, which looked to help fuel him to have a really good game for himself, even though Kentucky struggled to put JMU away for much of the night. Now, he can build on that on the big stage against Kansas on Tuesday night.

Kentucky's three-point defense was tested

You may remember that against UCF, Kentucky's three-point defense was a big reason why they went to overtime. On Friday, they faced a team that loves to shoot it from deep and they used that shot to stay with Kentucky for much of the game. In the first half, James Madison shot 9-26 from three. That is 26 three-point attempts on 36 field goals in the opening half. That basically continued on in the second half, as they went 6-19 from three. Kentucky was really tested there in a big way and the Dukes did a great job of that, finishing the night 15-45 from deep.

Defensive length came alive late

Kentucky forced just one singular turnover in the first half on Friday night. That is very uncharacteristic of this team. That is also a big reason why James Madison was able to put up so many shots -- Kentucky just wasn't generating takeaways, which have been so key to their success, especially whenever the offense is in a cold stretch. In the second half, Kentucky forced six turnovers, which helped them go on a 14-7 run to help go up by ten points late in which they never let up. Kentucky also ended up with five of their six steals coming in the second half.

Up next, the Wildcats will have their first major test of the season when they travel to Chicago to take on the #17 Kansas Jayhawks in the Champions Classic. We'll really get to see where this team is at on Tuesday.

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