Aaron Harrison returned after suffering a dislocated finger against West Virginia. (Chet White, UK Athletics)

Metz Camfield from CoachCal.com contributed to this pieceCLEVELAND – There was still almost the entire second half to play, but the celebration was already on for Kentucky fans at Quicken Loans Arena en route to a 78-39 win over West Virginia.The Wildcats (37-0) had built a lead of 29 points and appeared poised to coast through the final 16-plus minutes, until Aaron Harrison doubled over in pain. With 16:39 left, Harrison left the floor hunched over. The team trainer met him and draped a towel over his hand and the two hurried into the tunnel. Fans watching at home reported his ring finger was bent grotesquely and for a brief moment those who had been jubilant just seconds prior pondered life without the clutch sophomore guard.But seconds later, Harrison reemerged and rejoined his team on the bench. Minutes later, he checked back in.”It’s fine,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “He played. He went back in and played so he’s good.”Officially, Harrison’s injury was a dislocated finger. He didn’t even allow the trainer to pop it back into place for him.”I had no choice,” Harrison said. “I just felt like I needed to get it back, so I just pulled it.” Treating an injury himself only figures to add to Harrison’s still-growing NCAA Tournament legend, a legend he says he will most certainly be looking to add to come Saturday at 8:49 p.m. against Notre Dame.  “I’m playing Saturday,” said Harrison, who scored 10 of his 12 points in a barrage to start Thursday’s blowout win.Making that easier is the fact that the injury is to his non-shooting hand. When Harrison checked back in his finger was heavily taped and he had direct orders not to drive to the basket. John Calipari just wanted him to get a live shot or two under his belt to build his comfort level.”I mean it was different to have something on my left hand when I tried to shoot it, but I’ll figure a way out,” Harrison said. “I’m definitely playing Saturday.”When Harrison checked out for the final time against West Virginia with eight minutes left, Calipari extended his hand to give a high-five. Harrison went across his body to oblige with his right hand, saving his left the trouble. He also had a couple quick words for his coach.”I just told him, ‘I can still shoot, Coach,’ ” Harrison said. ” ‘So I’m good.’ ” Andrew Harrison’s and-one highlights UK’s demolitionThe game was over. In fact, it had been over for quite some time. But the highlights weren’t and Andrew Harrison still had one play he wanted to perform.With 6:20 left in the game, the sophomore point guard got his opportunity and didn’t disappoint.Leading 67-32, Harrison read West Virginia’s Jevon Carter and picked off his pass intended for Juwan Staten. Harrison raced down the right side of the floor before Carter ran in front of him. That’s when things turned silly.”That was crazy,” Tyler Ulis said. “It shows you what type of night we were having.”The type of night UK was having was one where Harrison was able to put the ball behind his back without bouncing it, reminiscent of another former Kentucky point guard in John Wall, and then throw the ball up backwards as he fell to the ground as he was being fouled.Of course the ball then banked high off the backboard and into the hoop. New score: Kentucky 69, West Virginia 32. Andrew Harrison 1, Sanity 0.”That’s gonna be a top-10 play,” Ulis said.Harrison could only smile from ear to ear as he bounced up immediately after the play and was swarmed by his teammates.In the grand scheme of things, it was just a three-point play – after the made free throw – that put the Cats up by 38 points with 6:20 remaining, but it was one that caught the attention of the Cats’ leader in highlight reel plays, Willie Cauley-Stein, who said Harrison had called the play earlier in the game.”Crazy,” Cauley-Stein said. “He called it. We were sitting on the bench and he was like, ‘I should have went behind the back on that,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, bro. Do it next time.’ He kind of sat there and I’m like, ‘Nah, he’s not gonna do it.’ I was just talking him into it, ‘Yeah, bro, do it.’ Dude does it! I’m like, ‘Dude!’ And made the layup. That was crazy. I stopped. I stopped at half court. I thought it was going to be a foul or he was going to miss it, but he ended up making it. I was like, ‘This dude really called that shot.’ “But was it a better play than some of Cauley-Stein’s dunks, including his poster vs. Cincinnati in the Round of 32?”Probably more acrobatic,” Cauley-Stein said.Booker finds his strokeNitpickers needed only look as far as Devin Booker to find a flaw with UK’s postseason run.The freshman sharpshooter had gone cold in March, hitting a combined 10 of 30 from the field and 3 of 16 from 3 in tournament play. Even though Kentucky had cruised to double digit wins in all five of those outings, Booker would need to find his form for the Cats to hit their peak.He did just that Thursday night.”He had to tighten it up,” Calipari said. “He got a little loose with his shot, and when you do that and you start missing, it goes the other way on you fast, but I thought today he was terrific.”Booker scored 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a perfect 3 of 3 in the first half. He also hit a pair of 3-pointers before halftime for his first makes from outside the arc in the NCAA Tournament. In spite of the cold spell, his teammates never lost confidence in him.”We’ve seen that all the time,” Towns said. “We’re used to seeing that. Anytime he shoots it, we think it’s going in. It’s nothing new to us.”It’s that confidence that has helped carry Booker through.”This team helped me throughout my slump that I was in,” Booker said. “They told me to keep shooting. Once I see one go down, the rest will fall. It’s just been a lot of hard work and a lot of confidence that my team’s given me and it just ended up falling tonight.”Towns sits down, Johnson steps upTowns has made a late-season push into contention for the top spot in many projections of this summer’s NBA Draft. He’s become a go-to guy for Kentucky in the process, delivering big baskets when the Cats need them most.Considering that, you’d think Towns’ one-point, two-rebound, 13-minute line on Thursday night might spell trouble for the top seed in the Midwest Region.This, however, is not your normal team.As soon as Towns sat down with foul trouble, Dakari Johnson stepped up.”That’s something he always can do,” Towns said. “It’s a blessing to have people like him on our team. No matter what happens, there’s no bench on our team. Just reinforcements.”Johnson might not have seemed on paper to be suited to play against high-pressure, up-tempo West Virginia, but the 7-foot sophomore carved out a role for himself in his 24 minutes – the most he’s played in two months – and plenty of space. Johnson finished with 12 points, six rebounds and three blocks.”What Dakari did was like, wow, you could play without Karl. Well, Dakari was really good today.”Teammate-on-teammate crimeLike the rest of his teammates, Marcus Lee was locked in.Facing West Virginia’s press, Lee saw his man was leaving an opening for a drive to the basket and a lob pass, so he told Tyler Ulis about it. Seeing the situation play out just as Lee said it would, Ulis fed Lee perfectly for a dunk that gave the Wildcats their final points in a game-opening 18-2 run.The only problem was no one told Booker about it.”Only me and Tyler kind of knew what was happening so Devin still made that cut-through,” Lee said. “We kind of ran into each other and didn’t realize what was happening.”Poster dunks have become a common occurrence for this Kentucky team, but not with fellow Cats as the victims. Lee and Booker still had no trouble enjoying it afterward.”We laughed about it,” Lee said. “We were looking at pictures and videos about it after the game.”

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