AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Regardless of whether Kentucky goes on to win the national championship, the Wildcats accomplished something Friday night no team has done all season: stymie Utah’s Andrew Bogut. Primarily using two 7-foot backups and lots of help from smaller guys, the Wildcats harassed Bogut into the poorest shooting game of his All-American season and showed off their depth, spreading their scoring in a 62-52 victory in the Austin Regional semifinals.
Kentucky (28-5) is headed to the regional finals for the second time in three years and the third time since winning the championship in 1998, the team’s first season under coach Tubby Smith. The second-seeded Wildcats will play fifth-seeded Michigan State on Sunday, with the winner headed to the Final Four.
While it’s not surprising Kentucky is moving on, few could have expected the stars of this win to be Shagari Alleyne and Lukasz Obrzut, a pair of big men who didn’t play in a total of 11 games this season.
But when starting center Randolph Morris went to the bench with two fouls just 90 seconds in, the reserves answered. The 7-foot-3 Alleyne blocked the first shot Bogut tried against him, and his long wingspan seemed to bother the usually smooth Aussie.
Bogut missed eight of his first 10 shots – more than he missed the first two round combined – and his first two free throws. Not even a mouthful of expletives directed at himself following his easiest shot, a dunk when Alleyne’s long legs got stuck in traffic, could get him going. He also got a technical foul, as did Kentucky’s Ramel Bradley, after the two exchanged words following a foul.
Smith let his big men go at Bogut alone, having them stay between Bogut and the basket rather than deny him passes. When Bogut got the ball, another defender or two helped out, keeping him from getting to his favorite spots near the basket. Many of his early misses looked like flicks he hoped might bounce in.
Bogut finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, but it wasn’t as good as it sounded. He was 8-of-19 – matching his career high for misses – and a career-worst 4-of-11 from the line. He had just three rebounds in the second half. And, unlike the previous game when he offset 10 points with a career-high seven assists, he didn’t have any this time.
Chuck Hayes led Kentucky with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting. Rajon Rondo scored 10 and Kelenna Azubuike had nine. Kentucky used 13 players and 10 of them scored. The Wildcats made 61.5 percent of their shots; nine of their 15 misses were on 3-pointers.
The disappointment goes deep for Bogut. The sophomore is widely expected to turn pro, so this probably was his last college game – and his first with his mom, Anne, in the stands. She arrived from Melbourne, Australia, on Thursday and waved a small Aussie flag, the green and gold standing out amid the red across the Utah section.
The loss also continues a bad habit for the Utes (29-6). Six of their last 11 tournament appearances have ended against the Wildcats, all since 1993. That includes the ’98 title game.
The Utes actually started this game strong, mainly by using Bogut as a decoy to open the lane. They were up 9-8 when Kentucky took over, going on a 13-2 run and holding Utah without a field goal for more than eight minutes.
Yet the Utes slowed the tempo enough that the Wildcats’ 59-percent shooting in the first half provided only a five-point lead at halftime. They stretched it to 10 early in the second half and only had to hold off one run – a 9-2 spurt that could’ve gotten Utah within two had Bogut made a free throw to cap a three-point play.
Instead, Azubuike hit an 8-foot jumper to get the lead back to five and the Wildcats weren’t threatened again.
