Whew! Kentucky Wildcats survive scare, hold off Princeton Tigers in NCAA opener 59-57
By Paul Jordan
Earlier in the season, it was the trio of Terrence Jones, Brandon Knight, and Doron Lamb that often carried the Wildcats to victory. Sometimes you even wondered if the “non freshman” Wildcats would even show up as the first year Wildcats were saddled with the scoring load. Thursday afternoon in Tampa, Kentucky fans wondered about the reverse scenario. Would the freshmen Wildcats show up for Kentucky’s game against Princeton.
At first, it seemed like a moot point as Kentucky surged to an 11-2 lead in the first five minutes of the game. Darius Miller led the way early with 5 points and Josh Harrellson added four. At that point, Princeton took control of the tempo and forced the Wildcats into a half court game. The Tigers also attacked the boards en mass and held Kentucky to just one shot at the basket. Princeton cut the lead to 16-13 with 10:16 remaining, and at this point, only Doron Lamb had dented the scoreboard for the Wildcats and that was just for two points.
Princeton continued to control the flow of the game and knotted the score at 20 with a Douglas Davis three pointer with 5:56 left in the half. Princeton took their first lead at the 3:44 mark with a pair of Kareem Maddox free throws at 26-24. Darius Miller scored the next seven points for UK, but the Wildcats still could not shake the Tigers. DeAndre Liggins hit a three pointer to give the Wildcats a 34-33 halftime lead. Kentucky could credit the “other” players for being in the game at this point as Darius Miller led the way with 15 points and Josh Harrellson had 6 points and 6 boards. For the freshmen, Jones and Lamb both had 5 points each and Brandon Knight was scoreless.
The second half was not much different from the first as Princeton was content to take their time on offense and packed the inside on defense. Kentucky continued to struggle without production from the freshmen. The St Pete Times Forum definitely got a bit uneasy as Princeton took a 44-39 lead on a Brendan Connelly jumper with 12:13 remaining.
Then for the first time today, Kentucky looked like Kentucky. DeAndre Liggins found Josh Harrellso for a layup. Terrence Jones nailed a jumper. Doron Lamb scored on a layup and Liggins found Harrellson again inside and UK was up 47-44 with 8:44 remaining. Back to back three pointers by Jones and Liggins put Kentucky up 53-48 with 6:32 remaining, and it looked like Kentucky was getting control of this game. Princeton made some noise, but a Harrellson still had Kentucky up 55-51 with about 2:00 remaining.
Credit has to go to the Tigers as they did not get fazed. Dan Mavraides made a jumper surrounded by three Wildcats and the improbable happened. Princeton tied the score at 57 with just :34 seconds remaining. Kentucky had the luxury of a full shot clock and they ran the clock down and Brandon Knight broke to his right and drove towards the basket and kissed the ball off the glass for a layup with :0:02 remaining. It says a lot about Knight that he took the shot in the clutch, seeing that he was 0-7 on the day and had yet to score. Princeton got off a heave that was way short and the Wildcats survived with a 59-57 win over the pesky Tigers.
Darius Miller led the way with 17 points and it was Miller than kept Kentucky close in the first half. Josh Harrellson finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds and shot 7-8 from the field. The value of Harrellson could not be underestimated as Kentucky seemed to go to him every time they needed a key basket. Terrence Jones finished with 10 points but had just two rebounds. DeAndre Liggins scored 8 points and had those two key assists to harrellson during UK’s key run.
Well, a lot could be said … but it does not need to be. the words for the tournament are “survive and advance” which Kentucky did. Mission Accomplished. It’s on to West Virginia Saturday.
For complete game stats, go here.
Photo credit: (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
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