LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Cincinnati looked for a moment to have Kentucky rattled.After tempers flared early in the second half, Aaron Harrison was whistled for a technical foul for bumping into the Bearcats’ Octavius Ellis. Officials went to the monitor to check the play and John Calipari shouted at the normally cold-blooded sophomore, “What did you do?”Cincinnati capitalized on the exchange and cut UK’s lead to three points. The unbeaten season and bid for a ninth championship seemed in jeopardy.Then Kentucky happened.”Everybody I think just locked in defensively,” Trey Lyles said. Over the next 15-plus minutes, the top-seeded Cats outscored Cincinnati 31-15 to build an insurmountable lead. The Bearcats hit just 6 of 29 from the field during the stretch and UK (36-0) clinched a Sweet 16 berth with a 64-51 victory in spite of shooting just 37 percent from the field.Harrison was UK’s top offensive threat, scoring 13 points. He buried three 3-pointers, including a crucial one with 11:54 left that gave UK an eight-point lead. “We’re familiar with what Aaron can do,” Dakari Johnson said. “He hits big shots.”From that point on, UK’s lead would never dip below seven and grew to as large as 19, though the Bearcats battled until the buzzer.”I thought Cincinnati played well,” Calipari said. “They didn’t back away. They came right at us. I always like it when my team shoots 37, 36, 35 percent and wins in double digits. It shows them they don’t have to make shots to win. You can miss them all. No, you can’t miss them all. You can miss most of them, and you can still win games if you defend, you rebound and you play that way, make your free throws, and they did.”UK would have to make its free throws in this one, as Cincinnati took a physical approach to trying to take down No. 1. The Cats went to the line 28 times and made 20, absorbing 22 Bearcat fouls, including one that triggered the technical.Lyles, who had his second-career double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, drove the lane and was fouled hard by Shaq Thomas. As the teams assembled at the foul line, there was some light jawing. Ellis, who battled Lyles all day and was booed regularly by Kentucky fans among the 21,760 in attendance at the KFC Yum! Center, was in the middle of it and eventually was bumped by Harrison for the technical call.”He was just trying to be physical and stuff like that, but nobody let that get to them,” Lyles said. “Kudos to him for going hard, but we were going at them hard too.”And even harder after the technical.”Anytime some stuff like that happens, it doesn’t matter who, you’re going to automatically be juiced,” said Willie Cauley-Stein, who had another of his poster-worthy dunks to key a game-turning first-half run. “Anytime somebody is talking trash to you you’re going to go back at them.”Undeterred by yet another grind-it-out game and the back-and-forth that came with it, the Cats stayed alive and marched into the Sweet 16. In spite of being outrebounded for just the seventh time all season and the second time in the last 14 games, UK answered the bell.”That was what everybody thought that to beat us you have to play more physical,” Cauley-Stain said. “We’re a physical team. We’re all big and fast and strong. It’s not like pushing us in the back on a rebound – we might not get it that time, but we know next time, OK, go ahead and push me in the back or anything, pushing and shoving. I don’t know, it doesn’t really bother me.”Nonetheless, the Cincinnati game still inspired talk that the game plan the Bearcats used might be the one a more dynamic offensive team could use to take down UK. Harrison isn’t overly concerned.”You gotta do what you gotta do, but I think we’re a physical team as well,” Harrison said. “Teams have tried to be physical with us all year and I think we’re one of the more physical teams in the country and we can match anybody’s intensity or aggressiveness or anything.”For a few brief moments, the Cats were able to celebrate what they did to advance past Cincinnati. It doing so, UK became the first team in NCAA history to start 36-0, besting the record set by the Wichita State team that saw its season ended a year ago in the round of 32 by Kentucky.Still, the Cats were ready to move on quickly to thoughts of the Midwest Regional.”We’re not done yet,” Lyles said. “It’s a good accolade to have, but we have another game coming up on Thursday that we have to get ready for.”