Viva le Jorts! Kentucky Wildcats win cluch game over Vanderbilt Commodores 68-66 on Senior Day
By Paul Jordan
Coming into this game, the Kentucky Wildcats had a couple of black clouds hanging over their heads. One of those was their inability to win on the road and the other was their inability to win a close game with less than a six point margin. Well the road woes will have to wait for another day as this game was at Rupp and it was the Senior Day appearance for Josh Harrellson to boot. But Kentucky did take care of one thing on their “yet to do” list as they held off the #20 Vanderbilt Commodores 68-66.
For two teams as evenly matched, the Wildcats had a surprisingly easy time of the Commodores in the first half. Kentucky led the entire first half, but thanks to the inspired play of Festus Ezeli, the Commodores were still in striking range at 19-15 halfway through the first half. Three pointers by DeAndre Liggins and Terrence Jones gave Kentucky some breathing room and a double digit lead at 25-15. Ezeli had back to back dunks to keep the game respectable, but a Darius Miller three and a Josh Harrellson tip in threatened to turn the game into a blow out at 36-21 with 3:48 left. Kentucky had a couple of defensive lapses which allowed Brad Tinsley easy layups, but Kentucky held on to most of their lead and went in to the lockeroom with a comfortable 40-29 lead.
The key so far for Kentucky was shutting Jon Jenkins down. Jenkins only had two shot attempts and had just three points, all on free throws. Kentucky had very balanced scoring in the first half with Terrence Jones having 10 points, Doron Lamb with 9, and Josh Harrellson with 8. Also key was the Wildcats having 7 offensive rebounds and just one turnover in the opening stanza while forcing 8 Vandy turnovers.
It only took the Commodores 1:45 in the second half to make it a ballgame again as Festus Ezeli and Jeffrey Taylor Taylor took advantage of sloppt Wildcat defense and had easy dunks, cutting the score to 40-33 and prompting a timeout by John Calipari. It worked briefly as Kentucky scored the next four points, but then John Jenkins started to get hot and his three-pointer cut the Wildcat lead to 44-40 at the 15:53 mark. Brandon Knight and Darius Miller scored Kentucky’s next 11 points and before you knew it, Kentucky was back on top 55-42 with 12:01 remaining. Over the last couple of games, Kentucky has brought back the deadly spurt, and they had Vandy on the ropes yet again.
The Commodores are a worthy foe however and they took advantage of Festus Ezeli scoring at will and John Jenkins heating up to cut the margin to 57-53 with 9:30 left. It also helped the Commodores cause that UK was getting increasingly sloppy and had two Terrence Jones walking calls in three possessions. After going 20 minutes with just one turnover, the Wildcats racked up 6 in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Antother Jenkins trey cut the lead to 57-56 and you could say momentum was on the side of the Commodores.
The Commodores surged and took a 60-59 lead as we headed into crunchtime with about 3:30 left in the game. Darius Miller took the ball to the basket with authority against Brad Tinsley and Brandon Knight sank a couple of FT’s to give UK a 63-62 lead with 1:36 left. Jeffrey Taylor and Terrence Jones traded FT’s and UK still had the 1 point lead with 1:19 left but the Commodores had the ball.
Josh Harrellson blocked a Jeffrey Taylor layup and in the scrum for the ball, Harrellson tied the ball up but the possession arrow went to Vandy. No problem. Jorts stole the ball from Ezeli and after a couple of fouls, Terrence Jones sank two FT’s to put UK up 66-63 with :19 remaining. Kentucky defended against the three and gave up the easy two points to Goulbourne and Brandon Knight sank two more FT’s to put UK up 68-65. Rather than risk a three, Kentucky fouled Brad Tinsley who hit the first FT and then missed the second one but Kentucky got the rebound. The game was not without drama as Teddy “TV” Valentine called a walking call on Terrence Jones with :01 left. Kentucky defended against the trey though and the pass to Ezeli was knocked aside by Jorts and Kentucky finally had their clutch time win 68-66.
I know that we can dwell over Kentucky letting Vandy back into the game but to be honest, the final Vandy push was aided by about 3-4 non calls by the officials. I really hate to harp on officiating, but Teddy Vaklentine has to be one of the worst. Regardless, Kentucky let Vandy back in the game, but they pulled out the win in clutch time and the defensive leader down the stretch was none other than Josh Harrellson.
In his last game at Rupp, Harrellson has 8 points and 9 boards, but even more importantly, he had 4 blocks and 3 steals. Brandon Knight led UK in scoring with 17 points, and he had an off night shooting (5-14) but he also sank all six of his FT attempts and added 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Terrence Jones had 15 points and 9 boards and Darius Miller finished with 12 points. Surprisingly, there were only 6 3-pointers made in this game and Kentucky held Vandy to just two treys in 11 attempts. Also notable is that John Jenkins was held below hos scoring average with 16 points and Vandy got zero bench points.
All in all, it’s been a tremendous four days for Kentucky at Rupp as they have knocked off both the #13thranked Gators and the #20th ranked Commodores. With this performance, Kentucky should move back into the top four seed range for the upcoming NCAA tournament if they can knock off Tennessee on the road Sunday. As of right now, Kentucky owns the number two seed in the SEC East, but they will need some help to keep it. Due to Vandy sweeping Georgia, there can not be a three way tie in the SEC East, so either Georgia needs to lose one of their two remaining games or Vanderbilt needs to lose to Florida on Saturday. If it is a two way tie with Kentucky and either Georgia/Vandy, Kentucky wins the tiebreaker. So we still have to take care of Tennessee and do some scoreboard watching.
For complete game stats, go here.
Photo courtesy: Lexington Herald Leader
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