John Calipari had been asking, begging and pleading for a few good veterans for the last couple of weeks.He got two very good ones to step up Tuesday night to end the Kentucky men’s basketball team’s current skid.Junior guard DeAndre Liggins tied a career high with 19 points and senior forward Josh Harrellson added another 16 as the Cats ended the first two-game losing streak of head coach John Calipari’s UK career with a 73-61 victory over Tennessee. Liggins played arguably the best game of his collegiate career while Harrellson returned to his pre-conference form. Even Darius Miller, who finished just 1 of 7 from the floor, drew praise from his coach for fighting and rebounding.”Obviously, if Josh, DeAndre and Darius play like this, it’s much easier,” Calipari said. “Those three, it’s important, especially when we go on the road. Terrence (Jones) struggled today.  Doron (Lamb) struggled at Florida. He never was into the game; not one second was he into the game. … Well, that’s like normal (for a freshman). You other guys got to come and play. That’s why we’re saying our veterans got to bring it every game.”They showed up at the perfect time. With border-state rival Tennessee in town and a two-game losing streak putting Calipari into “crisis” mode, the Cats had to win Tuesday to hold on to any Southeastern Conference title hopes. A loss would have sent UK (17-6, 5-4 SEC) a game under .500 in the league standings and three games back of Florida in the SEC East. “We needed it,” Liggins said. Contrary to Kentucky’s way of doing things the past two years, times of need are generally saved for the veterans. Calipari called on his vets to step up after nearly letting the Georgia win slip away, and although it was two games later, they finally responded.”We know in order for us to win games, us three veterans have got to step up and lead these freshmen,” Liggins said. “We did it tonight. Now we’ve got to continue to do it on the road.”Liggins was a stat stuffer Tuesday night. His line of 19 points, a career-high five steals, five rebounds and three assists simply stood off the page.”He was fabulous,” Calipari said. “Fabulous.”Just a day ago, Calipari called Liggins the best defender in the country, but Tuesday he proved he was more than just a one-way player. In addition to diving on the floor, stealing the rock and guarding Tennessee’s best player, Liggins decided to look for his shot against Tennessee.”(Coach) wanted to be a little bit selfish today and be aggressive,” Liggins said.Liggins hit 5-of-6 from the field and 7-of-8 free throws to break the double-digit scoring margin for only the third time in the last 11 games. On one such sequence late in the second half, Liggins knocked down a jumper, nailed two free throws, hit a knockdown 3-pointer from the top of the key, and then threw a baseball pass ahead to Miller for an alley-oop dunk for Harrellson. Those nine points, seven of which Liggins scored, buried the Volunteers for good.” ‘The way he’s defending, he deserves to shoot more,’ ” Calipari told his team. ” ‘You guys figure out how to get him shots.’  I said, ‘DeAndre, if we throw it ahead and can make plays, go make them.’  How hard he’s working, he deserves it.  We got guys shooting balls, going through the motions. ‘You don’t deserve to shoot it.  Let him shoot it.’ “Of course, in typical Liggins fashion, he did all the little things, too. Scotty Hopson, UT’s leading scorer, was limited to 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting with Liggins tailing him (although Hopson was coming off a left ankle injury). Liggins forced numerous jump balls, took a key charge on Hopson in the second half and even swallowed his ego by patting a referee on the behind after he was robbed of a surefire block.  Maybe it’s no coincidence that Kentucky’s whipping of Tennessee came after Calipari decided to bring out a heavy bag and boxing gloves at UK’s practice this week. The Cats came out swinging with a 19-point first-half lead and then showed the stamina of a prized fighter in the second half when they grabbed key rebound after key rebound to halt a UT rally.Perhaps the only thing missing from this fighter’s repertoire was a true knockout blow as Tennessee hung around, but it’s one step at a time for a Kentucky team trying to get back on the right track – and that was getting back in the winner’s circle.”It made us tougher,” Liggins said of practices this week.Liggins credited Harrellson with being one of the hardest workers in practice this week, and it showed as the big man returned to his play of the first half of the season. After scoring just 31 points over his last eight games, Harrellson reestablished himself inside and scored 12-second half points. The resurgence came after Harrellson reasserted his previously successful practice habits this week. For the previous two weeks, Calipari said Harrellson had been “BS’ing.””Look, there’s one person you cannot fool: yourself,” Calipari said. “You can fool everybody else (but) you’re not fooling yourself. If you go through the motions in practice and act like it’s this, that, when you get in the game, the first raindrop hits your back, you know what’s about to happen. If you work your butt off and the raindrop hits you, you’re like, ‘I’m not worried about that.’ “There’s no fooling anyone either that one solid game by the veterans isn’t a cure-all for a recent slide. And there’s no fooling anyone that the freshmen will probably play the largest role down the stretch.But for Kentucky to make a serious run at anything, it will, as Calipari said last week, have to be about the veterans, too. You’d be a fool to think Kentucky could survive March with just a few good freshmen.