March 13, 1998
ATLANTA (AP) – Kentucky showed it could win without a barrage of 3-pointers.
Pounding the ball inside against an overmatched team, second-seeded Kentucky wore down South Carolina State and cruised to an 82-67 victory in the first round of the NCAA South Regional.
The Wildcats (30-4) didn’t bother to set up very much outside the 3-point arc, hitting only 4-of-14 from that range. They preferred to work closer to the basket, a strategy that paid off abundantly when Kentucky’s big men outscored their counterparts from South Carolina State 57-8.
“They gave all they had,” said center Nazr Mohammed, who led the Wildcats with 18 points despite a bruised shoulder. “But we still felt bigger and we knew we could go inside for easy baskets. We just tried to keep our bodies on their big guys and our guards did a good job getting us the ball when we were open.”
South Carolina State coach Cy Alexander said before the game that his team would have trouble coping with Kentucky’s size and depth. He knew the front line is where the difference between top- and lower-level Division I programs usually reveals itself.
“They get guys who are basically high school All-Americans,” Alexander said. “We get guys who are developing basketball players.”
Kentucky’s frontcourt starters combined for 44 points, and three reserves added 13. South Carolina State got eight points from its three inside starters and nothing from the bench.
“We knew our (frontcourt) players had to play hard and challenge them,” Alexander said. “But we were totally dominated.”
Tubby Smith, winning his first NCAA tournament game as Kentucky’s coach, merely had to look at the lineup card to know where the Wildcats could do the most damage in this game.
“The number one thing is size,” he said, glancing at a roster thatincludes three 6-foot-10 players – Mohammed, Jamal Magloire and Michael Bradley – as well as 6-9 Scott Padgett. “We’ve got good size. And we can bring good size off the bench.”
Kentucky, which won the Southeastern Conference’s regular-season and tournament titles, dominated the final 10 minutes of the first half, building a 43-28 lead against the champion of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference.
South Carolina State (22-8), which trailed only 20-18 when Roderick Blakney hit a scoop shot in the lane with 10:14 left in the opening half, missed 10 straight shots before Blakney made another basket 6 1/2 minutes later.
By that time, Kentucky had a 35-23 lead and was coasting toward its eighth consecutive victory, all by double-figure margins. The Wildcats shot nearly 60 percent from the field (31-of-52), doled out 25 assists and had 11 blocked shots.
“We’re doing the things that championship-calibre teams have to do to move on in the tournament,” Smith said.
After three straight tournaments as a No. 1 seed, the Wildcats dropped a spot this season. But they don’t appear to have slipped despite the coaching transition from Rick Pitino to Smith, who spent the past two years at Georgia.
Last year, Smith’s third-seeded Georgia team was beaten by No. 14Chattanooga, but there was no chance of a repeat against the 15th-seededBulldogs. Kentucky won its seventh straight first-round game.
The Wildcats advanced to play the winner of the Massachusetts-Saint Louis game, with Smith seeking his fourth trip to the round of 16 in five years. He took his last two teams at Tulsa to the regional semifinals, as well as his first Georgia squad in 1996.
Kentucky lacks a true superstar but has a plethora of weapons. Leading scorer Jeff Sheppard, hampered by a sprained ankle, scored only four points in 15 minutes, but four of his teammates were in double figures.
South Carolina State was well-rested after making its first plane trip of the season – the Bulldogs traveled by bus to all previous road games – and hoped the backcourt of Blakney and Tyler Brown could balance Kentucky’s superior inside game.
Blakney scored 23 points and Brown added 22, but it wasn’t nearly enough in a game that matched programs with disparate NCAA traditions.
“We came out sort of nervous,” Blakney said. “The mystique of Kentucky, their tradition, had a lot to do with it. Once we calmed down, I thought we competed with them pretty well.”
Kentucky came to Atlanta having won 77 tournament games and six national championships. The Wildcats captured their most recent title in 1996 and reached the final last season, losing to Arizona in overtime.
South Carolina State, on the other hand, was playing in the tournament for just the third time and was unable to match the success of last year’s MEAC representative, Coppin State, which advanced to the second round.
The Bulldogs have been blown out in the first round in each of their appearances, losing by an average of almost 25 points per game.
