| |
Kentucky stays perfect, beats Georgia 76-68
By WILL GRAVES
January 9, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Patrick Patterson and John Wall scored 17 points each to help No. 3 Kentucky hold off Georgia 76-68 on Saturday in the Southeastern Conference opener for both schools.
DeMarcus Cousins added 16 points and seven rebounds for the Wildcats (16-0), who are off to their best start since winning 23 games to open the 1965-66 season.
It wasn’t easy. There were 12 lead changes and nine ties as Georgia hung around despite turning it over 26 times against Kentucky’s unrelenting press.
The Bulldogs (8-6) nearly pulled off their second straight upset behind a season-high 20 points from Travis Leslie and 17 points and 13 rebounds from Trey Thompkins.
Georgia pulled to 63-62 on a 3-pointer by Thompkins with just over 6 minutes to play, but would make just one field goal the rest of the way.
Cousins scored seven of Kentucky’s final 13 points, including the deciding lay-up with 36 seconds remaining.
The win was Kentucky coach John Calipari’s 62nd straight conference victory. The first 61 came while he was coaching Memphis in Conference USA.
He found out quickly the going will be much more difficult in the SEC.
Georgia knocked off No. 20 Georgia Tech earlier in the week and showed the win over their archrival was no fluke. Leslie kept the Bulldogs in it early and Georgia’s zone defense forced the Wildcats to shoot it from the outside.
Kentucky had no problem shooting it. Making it proved to be another matter.
The Wildcats made just 2 of 14 3-point attempts for the second straight game and needed an emotional lift from the volatile Cousins to keep their perfect start intact.
With a capacity crowd that included movie star Ashley Judd and Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin anxious as the Bulldogs hung around, Cousins went to work.
He scored seven straight points—including 5 of 6 free throws—before the game-clinching layup. The 6-foot-11 freshman swung his arms in jubilation.
Georgia’s Dustin Ware missed a jumper, Wall made two free throws then capped it with a high-flying dunk with 9 seconds remaining.
Georgia, like Louisville last week, did its best to rough up the Wildcats. The Bulldogs bumped, grabbed and nudged Wall wherever he went, and this week’s Sports Illustrated cover story was mortal for most of his 34 minutes.
Wall made just 5 of 14 shots—including two missed dunks—and was twice whistled for traveling.
The Bulldogs did the same to Cousins, as Albert Jackson, Chris Barnes and Jeremy Price all fouled out trying to keep the Wildcats in check.
Still, Kentucky had enough when it mattered to stay unbeaten.
The nail-biting finish was hard to imagine at the start.
The Wildcats led by 11 midway through the first half as the Bulldogs couldn’t muster any offense outside of Leslie, who scored Georgia’s first 10 points, including an emphatic dunk over Cousins.
Yet Kentucky couldn’t find a way to finish the Bulldogs early. Instead, Georgia surged in front behind the play of Thompkins and McPhee. The Bulldogs went on a 25-8 burst over an 8-minute stretch as Wall struggled.
Wall missed his first three shots and allowed McPhee to hit a couple of 3-pointers over him.
No matter. He scored five points in the final 1:11 of the half to pull Kentucky to 35-34 at the break.
Sports Ticket Depot -
NCAA Basketball News Archive Index
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taylor has 23, No. 17 Wisconsin tops No. 4 Purdue
By COLIN FLY
January 9, 2010
MADISON, Wis. — Jordan Taylor had a rocky start replacing Trevon Hughes.
The backup point guard committed two turnovers and missed a jumper immediately after Hughes picked up two quick fouls, but he got better in a hurry to help Wisconsin hand Purdue its first loss this season.
Taylor scored a career-high 23 points, Jason Bohannon tied a career high with 20 and No. 17 Wisconsin beat No. 4 Purdue 73-66 Saturday.
Taylor, a sophomore who has provided the Badgers a big lift on offense, went 7 of 11 from the field and 8 of 11 from the free-throw line.
“As much as they pressured us, it’s not that difficult to get in the lane, but as well as they help, it’s more difficult when you get in the lane to make your decision, make the right decision,” Taylor said. “I made some bad decisions at the beginning, but I just tried to keep getting better throughout the game.”
Purdue’s 14-0 start tied the best in school history, but both the 1993-94 squad led by Glenn Robinson and this year’s had their streaks end in Madison.
With former coach Gene Keady watching from behind the bench, Painter’s Boilermakers (14-1, 2-1 Big Ten) trailed most of the game.
“It’s bothersome,” Painter said. “We didn’t put ourselves in position to win even though we made it a little bit closer at the end. We simply didn’t make it a basketball game until the very end.”
E’Twaun Moore had 24 points and Robbie Hummel added 13, but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome the Boilermakers woes from 3-point range (3 of 10) and the free-throw line (13 of 24).
“It’s frustrating that we lost. It’s not frustrating that we’re not 15-0,” Hummel said. “This game was frustrating.”
Wisconsin (13-3, 3-1) beat a top 10 team in Madison for the second time this season and improved to 130-10 at home in coach Bo Ryan’s nine seasons. Purdue had been one of the only teams to give Wisconsin headaches. The Boilermakers had won four straight in the series and an unheard of two in a row in Madison.
“I believe in our guys. They’ll go toe-to-toe with anybody, anytime,” Ryan said. “We beat a good team, we beat a very good team.”
No visitor has ever won three in a row in the nearly 12-year history of the Kohl Center and Wisconsin, which saw its six-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday night in a 54-47 loss to No. 10 Michigan State, took control in the opening minutes of the second half.
“It was very big for us,” Bohannon said. “We had a tremendous team coming in here on our home court and we came off a tough loss at East Lansing. It was a big statement for us to come out strong and play well.”
Keaton Nankivil followed two of his own misses with offensive rebounds before finally slamming the ball. Hughes and Bohannon added consecutive 3-pointers to give Wisconsin a 42-31 lead with 15:31 left.
“That was a statement that we weren’t going to be pushed around in our own home,” said Hughes, who finished with 14 points. “It definitely gave us momentum after he did that, and the crowd got right into it. You’ve got to get the crowd into it when we (are) at home. It’s the Kohl Center, baby.”
Moments later Taylor found Ryan Evans with an around-the-defender pass for a 12-foot jumper that made it 47-33 with 14:22 left.
“Taylor’s the difference in the game,” Painter said.
The Boilermakers, who rallied from 16 down in the second half last month at Alabama, couldn’t manage a similar escape from Wisconsin.
Moore hit a 3-pointer from the left corner and added another basket with 1:18 left to cut Wisconsin’s lead to 63-57. But Taylor added four free throws and Wisconsin hit eight straight from the line that appeared to seal it until Hummel banked in a 3 that cut it to 71-66 with 10 seconds to play.
That was as close as it got.
“Hopefully this will just make us stronger from here,” Moore said. “We’ve been in tough games—today, especially Alabama, things like that. Hopefully, we learn.”
Sports Ticket Depot -
NCAA Basketball News Archive Index
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNLV wins at No. 15 New Mexico, 74-62
By TIM KORTE
January 9, 2009
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Kendall Wallace made six of his seven 3-pointers in the second half and finished with a career-high 21 points, leading UNLV to a 74-62 win over No. 15 New Mexico on Saturday to end the Lobos’ 19-game homecourt winning streak.
Wallace shot 7 of 10 from 3-point range and Tra’Von Willis scored 20, helping the Rebels (13-3, 1-1 Mountain West) salvage an important split on a demanding conference-opening road trip. Three nights earlier, UNLV lost at No. 25 BYU after faltering down the stretch.
Dairese Gary scored 17 points, Roman Martinez had 15 and Darington Hobson added 14 for New Mexico (14-3, 0-2), which won its first 12 games to reclaim a spot in the national rankings for the first time in 11 seasons but now has lost three of its last five.
The Lobos lost at San Diego State on Tuesday, and Wallace ended any hope for a bounce-back victory.
UNLV led 36-30 at the break but New Mexico chipped at the margin, got the fans involved and seemed poised to run the Rebels out of The Pit. The Lobos led 46-45 with 10:31 remaining when Will Brown scored after a nice feed from Darington Hobson to cap a 6-0 burst.
But Walllace steadied everything for UNLV with two 3-pointers and the Rebels scored the next 11 points for a 56-46 lead with 6:34 to go.
The Lobos weren’t finished, but neither was Wallace.
He kept shooting, hitting consecutive 3-pointers to put the Rebels up 64-51 with 4:57 remaining. When the Lobos trimmed the deficit to 68-62 with 1:44 on a 3-point play by Gary, Walllace answered with another 3-pointer that silenced the crowd.
Sports Ticket Depot -
NCAA Basketball News Archive Index
|
