March 22, 1998
By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Just like 1992, Kentucky erased a bigsecond-half lead in its NCAA regional final against Duke. Only this time, theWildcats erased the memory, too.
The Wildcats, haunted for six years for losing to Duke in perhaps thegreatest college game ever played, rallied from an 18-point deficit to beat thetop-seeded Blue Devils 86-84 Sunday in the South Regional final.
Just like six years ago in Philadelphia, Duke (32-4) trailed in the finalseconds and had a chance to win it with a buzzer-beater. But freshman WilliamAvery couldn’t replicate Christian Laettner’s shot-heard-round-the-world jumperthat ended Duke’s 104-103 victory that year, missing a running 30-footer offthe backboard as time expired.
Kentucky (33-4), the No. 2 seed, plays Stanford in the Final Four onSaturday in San Antonio. A win would send the Wildcats to their thirdconsecutive national championship game, this time against either Utah or NorthCarolina, but their first under new coach Tubby Smith.
The hottest team in college basketball with 11 consecutive victories, theWildcats fell behind by 18 points – 38-20 – after a 17-0 Duke run and trailed69-52 with just over 10 minutes left.
But the Wildcats then started doing everything they hadn’t until that point- making their outside shots, denying Duke at the defensive end and limitingthe Blue Devils to just one shot.
Wayne Turner, outplayed badly by Duke’s gritty Steve Wojciechowski in thefirst half, led the comeback, scoring 11 of his 16 points in the second half.Jeff Sheppard had 18 points and nine rebounds and Scott Padgett had 12 points,including the biggest ‘Cat basket, a go-ahead 3-pointer from well beyond thearc that broke an 81-all tie with 40 seconds to play.
Cameron Mills’s 3-pointer with 2:15 to play had given Kentucky its firstlead at 80-79.
Duke, led by Roshown McLeod’s 19 points and Trajan Langdon’s 18, scored only13 points in the final 9:38 after Chris Carrawell’s putback had made it 71-54.But the Wildcats, with Turner repeatedly setting up open shots with hispenetration, went on a 17-1 run keyed by 3-pointers from Padgett, Heshimu Evansand Allen Edwards to pull to within 72-71.
Duke twice had chances to tie it or go ahead after Padgett’s 3-pointer frombeyond the top of the key, but McLeod missed a jumper with 17 seconds remainingand Turner followed by making one of two free throws.
McLeod did hit a 3 after that, making it 85-84, and Avery got the chance towin it after Edwards made one of two free throws with 4 1/2 seconds to go.
Duke, which had been 7-0 in regional finals under coach Mike Krzyzewski,started out like it wouldn’t need any Laettner-like magic to win, going on an18-0 run to seize a commanding 38-20 lead.
To create open shots for their slumping stars – Langdon and McLeod were acombined 4-for-22 Friday against Syracuse – the Blue Devils repeatedly took theball inside without looking first to shoot, waited for the Wildcats’ defense tocollapse, then kicked it back outside.
All but four of Duke’s points during the run, Carrawell’s driving layup andtwo free throws, came from the outside.
But Kentucky, on the verge of falling so far behind that it might need oneof the greatest comebacks in NCAA history to recover, answered with a 12-0 runfinished off by two Sheppard baskets to make it 38-32.
The Blue Devils, held scoreless for exactly four minutes, ended the run withCarrawell’s follow off Langdon’s miss. Shane Battier later made two freethrows, then drove the baseline to dunk over 6-foot-10 Jamaal Magliore as Dukepushed the lead 49-39 at halftime.
But Magliore got his revenge, starting Kentucky’s postgame celebration byjumping on the scorer’s table after Avery’s desperation shot missed and runningthe length of it over startled reporters. He then ran to an open basket andhung off it as thousands of Kentucky fans jammed inside 40,589-seat TropicanaField whooped it up, the school fight song playing in the background.
Duke, which had beaten Kentucky four times in a row, lost for only the thirdtime in 15 regional finals.
