If the end of the series is at nigh, Kentucky and North Carolina gave basketball fans another exciting game on Saturday.
Taut. Competitive. A test of wills and nerves. You know, what’s been expected and delivered annually by two of college basketball’s most storied programs.
Kentucky won 73-72, but nothing was easy in a game that saw no lead greater than six points in the second half.
After Michael Kidd-Gilchrist made two free throws with 1:33 left, Kentucky led 73-72. A UNC turnover amidst chants of Go Big Blue suggested the Cats might ease to victory.
Not this day. A Kentucky turnover enabled Kendall Marshall to find Reggie Bullock for a three-pointer from the right corner that made it a one-point game with 47.7 seconds left.
It stayed that way when Marquis Teague missed the front end of a one-and-one.
UNC intended to go to center Tyler Zeller, but he couldn’t catch an entry pass, that teammate John Henson retrieved. When Anthony Davis blocked Henson’s emergency jumper, UK won.
Kidd-Gilchrist led UK with 17 points. Doron Lamb and Terrence Jones added 14 each. Darius Miller chipped in 12.
Harrison Barnes and Zeller led UNC with 14 poitns each. Henson added 10 and P.J. Hairston 10.
For the first time this season, Kentucky did not lead at halftime. Despite Barnes’ foul trouble, North Carolina led 43-38 at the break.
Barnes picked up his second foul with 13:16 left in the half. Although UNC led the final 13 minutes of the half, and by as much as nine points, Barnes returned to the game. He picked up his third foul with 6:19 left while trying to impede Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in transition.
Even without Barnes always on the floor, the Tar Heels got the best of it in the first half.
Zeller, a Cat killer last season (48 points, 20 rebounds and nine blocks in the two games) again played well against Kentucky. His 10 points led UNC, and his six first-half shots surpassed the five he took against Wisconsin earlier in the week and equalled the six he took in the loss to UNLV last weekend.
As UK Coach John Calipari suggested on Friday, Kentucky would not depend as much on its freshmen in such a high-caliber game. Veterans Jones and Miller took the initiative for the Cats. the two combining for 21 of UK’s 38 points.
North Carolina went to Zeller on two of its first three trips downcourt (and three of its first eight). Perhaps the attention needed on defense contributed to Anthony Davis’ two-point first half.
Kentucky could not fault a slow start. The Cats led 9-3 barely three minutes into the game. But a 15-7 edge in bench scoring (P.J. Hairton, iffy because of a wrist injured against Wisconsin) contributed eight of the points.
A jumper by Barnes with 6:53 left gave North Carolina its largest first-half lead: 34-25. A timeout help slow UNC’s momentum as Kentucky got within five by halftime.
What’s becoming a signature play helped Kentucky get off well in the second half. Kidd-Gilchrist threw a lob in transition that Davis dunked. The play tied it at 45-45 with 18 minutes left. That marked the first time since the 13-minute mark of the first half that the Cats did not trail.
Marshall steadied UNC with his second three-pointer (he came into the game with only three).
Kentucky inched ahead 52-51 on a Teague drive in transition. But UNC answered with a Hairston three-pointer 11 seconds later.
Neither team led by more than four points for nearly 16 minutes.
A Lamb three-pointer from the right corner gave Kentucky a 69-64 lead with 3:45 left. That marked only his second — and UK’s fourth — trey of the game.
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