Kentucky Outlasts Davidson in NCAA Tournament Opener
BOISE, Idaho – As Tennessee made a run to erase a double-digit lead in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, John Calipari was almost happy.
Of course he wanted to win the game, but he had a bigger goal in mind: preparing his team for the next tournament. In the NCAA Tournament, he knew similar circumstances would eventually arise.
One game in, Coach Cal has already been proven right.
“Teams are not going to go away no matter what,” Wenyen Gabriel said. “You gotta keep fighting. They made their run. They’re a good 3-point shooting team. That’s expected of them. I like how we fended it off and we came through with the W.”
Through 20 minutes, UK appeared poised to use its superior size and athleticism to cruise past a quality Davidson squad and into the second round. Soon after the start of the second half, Coach Cal’s Wildcats found themselves thankful to have withstood that Tennessee run five days ago. Armed with that experience, fifth-seeded Kentucky (24-10) found a way to down No. 12 Davidson at Taco Bell Arena, 78-73.
“We were making plays down the stretch, executing offense to get stops on defense, and that’s what it comes to down the stretch of the game,” Kevin Knox said. “They were making runs, but we responded pretty well for freshmen.”
After UK led by as many as 13 late in the first half, Davidson cut it to 10 at the break and caught fire out of the locker room. Bob McKillop’s Wildcats finally tied it with 9:05 left in the game and even had two looks at 3s that would have given them leads. But after the second missed with 2:59 to go, Coach Cal’s Cats clamped down.
“It was a good one for this young team,” Calipari said. “First time they’ve been in the NCAA Tournament, not knowing what to expect. If you come out to play the way we did in the second half, our season will be over. The way they played in the second half, I thought defensively, to play a team that’s as efficient and an execution team like Davidson, this young team did pretty good.”
For more than two minutes, UK held Davidson without a basket and reeled off nine straight points to reclaim a double-digit lead. Davidson would make three 3s and five free throws to make it at least a little interesting in the final minute, but UK had done enough to survive a stiff test.
The game went pretty much according to script, with UK electing to attack the basket as Davidson hunted looks from beyond the arc. By scoring 36 points in the paint and making 26 of 32 from the free-throw line, UK had little time for 3-pointers and only tried six. The Cats didn’t make one, ending a 1,047-game 3-point streak that spanned nearly 30 years.
“It just shows us and the rest of the country we don’t have to play our best, we don’t have to make a lot of shots or shoot our best to win,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We can still grit it out and win going to the basket and stuff like that.”
Davidson, meanwhile, put up 33 3-pointers and made 11. The Wildcats did get hot for short periods, but UK was able to use its length to limit opportunities and survive intentionally long possessions.
“Personally, that was physically the hardest team (to defend),” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “They tire you out so much on defense. They use all 25 seconds every possession. That was a good test for us. Not a lot of teams play that way and I think that favors us, but they were a really tough team and good team.”
Gilgeous-Alexander overcame his fatigue to flirt with a triple-double and post 19 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and five steals, but not without a slow start. Through more than 28 minutes, Gilgeous-Alexander had just two points on 1-of-8 shooting, but he closed with a flurry.
“I’ve always been taught that when my shot’s not dropping offensively, do it defensively,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I got a couple steals, got out in transition, got some easy dunks. My shot wasn’t dropping tonight, obviously, but I just tried to do whatever my team needed me to to win.”
For Knox, scoring happened to be what his team needed of him. Knox scored 25 points to reach double figures for the 12th straight game.
“I’m just staying aggressive, listening to coaches, just making sure that I do what I do in the workouts,” Knox said. “Knocking down shots, knocking down floaters, getting to the free-throw line. I’ve been really consistent. I gotta keep it up because now it’s win or go home.”
UK will next either win or go home on Saturday, when the Wildcats take on No. 13 seed Buffalo, which upset fourth-seeded Arizona in the second game of the evening session. At least for a couple hours on Thursday night, the Cats are going to enjoy win No. 1 in the NCAA Tournament.
“We don’t want to go home early,” Knox said. “We don’t want to end this season early. So all freshmen, there was a lot on the line tonight but we just made sure we came out, played hard, fought for 40 minutes and listened to the coaches. We definitely wanted this win and that’s what we got tonight.”
