NEW YORK – To the basketball eye, the first half of Kentucky-Kansas was almost unbearable to watch.

There were turnovers (12 of them by Kentucky), missed shots (enough bricks to finish renovating Madison Square Garden), and enough foot stomps by John Calipari to turn his right foot blue (Coach was in midseason form Tuesday night, wasn’t he?).

But you know what coaches say about first halves and learning experiences, right? One, that’s why there’s halftime, and two, learning experiences are always easier when you win.

Emerging from the locker room as if it were a different team, No. 2 Kentucky enforced its will early in the second half and ran away from No. 12/11 Kansas, 75-65, Tuesday night in front of a sold-out Madison Square Garden crowd of 19,979 fans. UK (2-0) improved to 20-6 over Kansas (1-1), the nation’s second-winningest program, with the victory.

“They had a will to win,” Calipari said. “That’s what I wanted to see. That’s the hardest thing to teach in what we do – a will to win. Have the courage to say, ‘I don’t care what happens, I’m going to step out and make a play that should be made.’ ”

Anthony Davis quite literally erased the sluggish first half with five second-half blocks, and Marquis Teague rebounded from a miserable opening stanza with 11 points after the half. Sophomore Terrence Jones, who kept UK in the game in the first stanza, finished with 15 points, and sophomore Doron Lamb, making his return to his hometown, scored a game-high 16.

The quartet ignited a 26-9 run out of the locker room. Teague, as if he developed some sort of instant amnesia, expunged a six-turnover first half and scored nine quick points. Meanwhile, Davis and Jones denied almost everything Kansas tried to take to the basket.

“We just tried to help each other out on defense as much as possible,” said Jones, who pitched in with three blocks of his own. “If a guy was working hard on the ball, then the other weak-side dude is coming over to help. That’s just how we’ve been practicing every day, going hard.”

After totaling two blocks before halftime, Davis matched that in the first few minutes of the second. By the time he spiked Tyshawn Taylor’s shot 20 rows into seats behind the basket, he was well on his way to a 14-point, seven-block, six rebound performance. Most of Davis’ points came by way of the dunk.

“I think today what happened is Bill (Self) said, ‘Drive the ball and hope they foul. Just go in there.’ So that’s where we got a bunch of blocks,” Calipari said. “We should be a good shoot-blocking team because of Anthony, Terrence and Michael (Kidd-Gilchrist) and even Eloy (Vargas). Darius (Miller) is a pretty good shot blocker.”

Kansas hung around as UK went up by as many as 17 points, but Lamb’s 3-point barrage midway through the second half was too much to overcome.

“I was a little nervous but I’m nervous before every game,” Lamb said of his homecoming. “I settled down in the second half and let the game come to me. I just made shots for my team.”

Even if Coach Cal doesn’t categorize it as a statement win like some of the players were hoping for on Monday, it was definitely a qualification of the potential this team possesses. If the Cats can turn it over that many times in the first half and still win, who knows how good they can be when they piece everything together.

“I think we made a good statement today,” said Lamb, who hit 3-of-5 perimeter shots. “We played a top team that was ranked. We beat them today. We just wanted to let everyone know today that we’re the best team in the country.”

Self, whose team was limited to 33.9 percent shooting, didn’t necessarily disagree.

“They have a chance to have a special, special team, without question,” Self said.

Teague epitomized the current makeup of this Kentucky team. When he fumbled his way to six turnovers in the first half, youth was trumping talent.

After being whistled for a traveling violation when he tried to throw a behind-the-back pass, Teague slammed a water bottle in frustration as Cal sent him to the bench. But Cal stuck with him and eventually talent overcame youth.

Freshman forward Anthony Davis recorded 14 points, seven blocks and six rebounds in the win over Kansas. (photo by Britney McIntosh, UK Athletics)

Call it Teague’s baptism in the Garden.

“I kind of expected what happened in the first half,” Calipari said. It’s a bunch of young guys out there trying to play, doing their own thing, breaking off plays.”

Remember, it was around this time last year that Brandon Knight underwent similar struggles in beautiful Maui. He went on to lead Kentucky to the Final Four.

Lamb, who calmed things down at the point when Teague struggled, said to give the freshman time.

“You get a little frustrated when you’re a freshman,” Lamb said. “He got a little excited trying to go one on one in the first half, but in the second half he settled down, let the game come to him and he had a couple of buckets we really needed in the second half.”

In the end, Teague and the Cats regrouped and pulled off an impressive win under difficult circumstances.

There were celebrities in attendance (New York Knicks super fan and Garden watchdog Spike Lee), former UK players (John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson), and just about every major college basketball reporter in the country, including what seemed like ESPN’s full ensemble of analysts (seriously, who from the “Worldwide Leader” didn’t make the trip to New York).

Given the youth of the players and the platform they were on Tuesday, it was an atmosphere unlike anything they will see the rest of the year, including the NCAA Tournament and the game to end all games on Dec. 3 against North Carolina.

They withstood the test Tuesday.

“For us to do what we did, I’m walking away saying let me watch the tape and see what we do better,” Calipari said.