Winning! Kentucky Wildcats clinch second seed in SEC East, knock off Tennessee Volunteers on the road 64-58
By Paul Jordan
Thanks to the efforts of the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators yesterday, today’s game took on a incredible amount of meaning. A Tennessee win would forge a four way tie for second place in the SEC East and the Vols would win the coveted second seed in the SEC. Plus, Tennessee, at 18-12, was firmly on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. When the dust cleared, Kentucky won their second straight “clutch” game and put an end to a road loasing streak by edging the Vols 64-58. In the process, Kentucky gains the game in the SEC Tournament and will play the winner of South Carolina and Ole Miss on 3:30PM Friday.
Tennessee started out as if their season was on the line, jumping out to a 7-0 start, with five of those points coming from Tobias Harris. It took Kentucky 4:23 to even score and they finally dented the scoreboard on a Doron Lamb three pointer. Kentucky made the score 7-5, but Tobias Harris had another quick five points and Kentucky was ice cold and the Vols raced to a 16-6 lead halfway through the first period. And Kentucky could not gain any footing the rest of the half as they wee doomed by poor shooting and had 6 turnovers against Tennessee’s tenacious defense. A Brandon Knight jumper cut the halftime deficit to 29-22 and you had to think Kentucky fans had to be thankful for just a seven point deficit.
Kentucky shot just 28.6% for the half and the freshman three of Knight, Lamb, and Jones went just 3-18 for 10 points. Tennessee’s freshman, Tobias Harris had 12 points on 5-8 shooting. You also have to credit the defense of Melvin Goins, who had three steals, to lead the Vol’s smothering defense.
It did not take Kentucky long to get back into the game in the second half. Terrence Jones scored the first four points on a layup and a pair of FT’s and Brandon Knight drained a three to knot the score at 29 apiece with 18:21 remaining. The trey was notable as it was Knight’s 69th trey of the season and that eclipsed Rex Chapman’s freshman mark. Doron Lamb gave Kentucky their first lead a minute or so later as his trey gave UK a 32-31 lead. Finally with the lead, Kentucky put the pressure on, getting back to back treys from Brandon Knight and a dunk from Darius Miller to go up 40-33 with 14:37 remaining. Kentucky managed to fend off any Vol runs over the next few minutes, but started to get into some serious foul trouble. Kentucky was up 49-43 with ten minutes remaining, but DeAndre Liggins had four fouls and Knight, Miller, Lamb, and Harrellson all had three fouls, insuring a drama filled finish to this game. To fulfill that prophecy, Kentucky turned the ball over two straight times on offense and Tobias Harris got an easy dunk to pull Tennessee to within 49-47.
Kenny Hall gave the Vols their first lead in a while at 52-51 with about 6:00 remaining but Terrence Jones responded with a layup and Darius Miller drained two FT’s to put UK up 55-52. Terrence Jones added a FT to make it 56-52 with 3:36 remaining. DeAndre Liggins fouled out just :10 later as Scotty Hopson completed a three point play to make it 56-55.
Not to panic though. Terrence Jones drove towards the basket and zipped a nice pass to Darius Miller who drained the three. Scotty Hopson was fouled by Lamb but could convert just one FT and then Kentucky had one of their gutsiest possessions of the season. Terrence Jones missed a three-pointer but Josh Harrellson grabbed the offensive rebound. Brandon Knight missed the three pointer, but Harrellson grabbed the rebound and missed the ensuing tip in, but Terrence Jones grabbed the rebound and got the ball to Brandon Knight, the teams best FT shooter and he was fouled. Knight sank both FT’s to put UK up 61-56 with just 1:02 remaining. More importantly, there was 2:11 remaining when Josh Harrellson grabbed the rebound on Hopson’s missed FT, so Kentucky had a 1:09 possession during crunchtime.
At this point, the wind was out of the Vol’s sails. Doron Lamb fouled out a few seconds later and Scotty Hopson converted two FT’s but Terrence Jones sank three of four FT’s down the stretch to make the final margin 64-58.
And finally, for the rest of the season, we do not have to hear about Kentucky’s road woes anymore. And after two straight wins in the clutch versus Florida and Tennessee on the road, we can throw out the assumption that Kentucky can not win the close game as they have played very well in crunch time the last three games against three quality opponents.
Brandon Knight led the way with 19 points and all 19 came in the last 20:10 of the game. Terrence Jones had 15 points and 12 boards and Darius Miller had another good game with 15 points. It should be noted that Jones had three assists as well and he is learning to find his teammates when he is driving. It says a lot when Kentucky can go on the road and win at Tennessee despite hitting just 35.8% of their shots and win with several key players in foul trouble.
Perhaps this team has turned the corner?
For complete game stats, go here
Photo credit: Lexington Herald Leader
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