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ATLANTA (AP) — Kentucky wasn’t about to lose to Georgia again.
Cliff Hawkins scored 23 points and the No. 8 Wildcats took control with a 12-3 run late in the game, beating Georgia 69-60 in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament on Friday.
Kentucky (24-4) has its sights on a top seed in the NCAA tournament, but that wasn’t possible if the Wildcats couldn’t figure out Georgia (16-13).
The Bulldogs already had beaten the league’s most venerable program twice during the regular season and were in position to become just the second team in 84 years to sweep three games from Kentucky in a year.
With five minutes left, the improbable looked possible. Georgia stormed back into the game with an 10-0 run and tied it at 52 on Rashad Wright’s 3-pointer. Jonas Hayes had a chance to put the Bulldogs ahead with 4:41 remaining, but he missed a pair of free throws.
That was Georgia’s shortcoming the entire day. The Bulldogs made only 6-of-16 from the foul line, preventing them from pulling off a trifecta over the Wildcats.
Gerald Fitch put Kentucky ahead to stay by making two free throws with 3:17 remaining. After Wright missed, the Wildcats raced the other way and got a layup from Erik Daniels to push the lead to 56-52.
A long 3 by Wright turned out to be Georgia’s last hurrah. Hawkins responded with a trey of his own over Wright — voted the top defender in the league — and Kentucky got a fortunate bounce after Fitch missed a 3-pointer. The rebound went straight to Kelenna Azubuike, who laid it in, was fouled and finished off the three-point play by hitting a free throw.
Then came the knockout, once again delivered by Azubuike. The sophomore saw an opening along the baseline and streaked to the basket for a monstrous dunk with one minutes to go, putting Kentucky ahead 64-55.
Fitch scored 15 points and Azubuike added 11 for the Wildcats, who advanced to meet either LSU or South Carolina in the semifinals.
The loss likely prevented Georgia from a spot in the NCAA tournament. The Bulldogs probably will settle for the National Invitation Tournament in their follow-up to last year’s academic scandal, which cost coach Jim Harrick his job and prompted the school to withdraw from both the SEC and NCAA tournaments.
Despite having only seven healthy players on scholarship, Georgia stunned Kentucky in both regular-season meetings, winning 65-57 at Rupp Arena and following up with a 74-68 upset in Athens.
Since 1920, Tennessee was the only team to sweep three games from Kentucky in a season, pulling off the feat in 1979. Conversely, Georgia had pulled off three wins over the same team only once, against Mississippi State in 1984.
While the game was played just over an hour’s drive from the Georgia campus, the Big Blue Nation turned Atlanta into “Cat-lanta.” The Bulldogs had one section of red-clad fans — everyone else in the Georgia Dome appeared to be wearing blue.
Still, the Bulldogs made a game of it after Hawkins hit one of his four 3s, putting Kentucky up 49-38 with just under 12 minutes left.
Wright, who led Georgia with 23 points, started the comeback with a trey of his own. Overall, he was 5-of-8 from outside the arc.
Wright drove the lane for another hoop, Chris Daniels spun in the late for a basket and Levi Stukes swished his only 3 of the game from the top of the key, completing the 10-point run.
The previous day, Stukes tied an SEC tournament record with eight 3-pointers, accounting for nearly all of his career-high 25 points. He was only 1-of-6 against the Wildcats.
But 3-point shooting wasn’t Georgia’s problem. The Bulldogs couldn’t buy a free throw after finishing fourth in the conference at 71.5 percent during the regular season.
