While this article’s title may rhyme, being unlucky only cost UK on the very last shot. UK had ample opportunity to put the game away in the last minute. The cats had many prime time players show up and play HUGE. But so did Indiana, and even more so at the forward position. UK may have been up 2 points with 5 seconds to play, but there really should have been no way that was even possible.
Terrence Jones took 3 shots, had 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 4 points and 6 turnovers. He also had 0 fouls, while Davis was in foul trouble the entire game. Jones probably had his worst game as a Kentucky Wildcat, and that was a huge reason why Indiana was in a position to win as time expired. Watford abused Jones all night long while he had a game high 20 points. Watford was the best forward on the court by far.
Indiana had to hit their 3’s to win and they did just that. Hulls, Watford and Sheehey were the only 3 Hoosiers to hit a 3 and they went 9-14 in the process. It’s hard to beat a team when they’re taking wide open 3’s and draining 60% of them.
Anthony Davis had extreme foul trouble as he had collected 2 fouls in a 50 second span, both on Cody Zeller. In the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] half he hacked Victor “don’t call me” Office Depot, then got his 4[SUP]th[/SUP] foul as he went to close in on Verdell Jones as he was shanking a 3 point shot. Verdell did what the Hoosiers did all night, flop. But UK didn’t adjust to the officiating. Davis finished with 6 points and 9 boards.
Speaking of flopping, Indiana did what all teams that are overmatched physically do. They threw themselves to the ground like the punter who flails after a defender makes eye contact with him. Lamb tried to avoid the charge in the first half, Hulls stepped in front of him—Charge, wipe off the basket. Miller goes up for jump shot, his leg grazed Office Depot’s jersey—Charge, wipe off the basket. Wiltjer went in for a running jumper, an IU player slid in under him—Charge, wipe off the basket. Depot flopped another time while guarding Miller, but it wasn’t called and Miller’s basket was finally allowed. A charge is when a player is out of control and runs over the defender’s chest, not when a defender knows how to beat the system and just falls down. It will always be a judgment call by the refs, not much you can do about it.
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but missed free throws killed these Cats. Kentucky worked so hard on the last 2 possessions getting a rebound and a turnover. The Cats got fouled on both and only had 1 made free throw to show for it. Davis missed one as did Lamb, thus it was a 2 point game instead of a 4 or 3 point game. All in all UK missed 7 free throws. Make half of those and it’s a 2 possession game.
MKG, Lamb, Miller and Teague all showed up big for the Cats. MKG had 18 points and 9 rebounds, lamb had a team high 19 points, Miller went nuts at the end of the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] half and was the main reason UK was still in the game, and Teague recovered from an awful start and finished with 15 points and 5 assists. Teague said in the postgame, he stopped thinking and just played ball.
He was a completely different player in the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] half getting to the rim at will.
Aside from the ending, it was a great game with a rude, crude, foulmouthed but great atmosphere. If Jones shows up and plays half way decent and UK makes 3 more free throws they win going away. They didn’t, so now they’re just going away. Now we have to deal with the possibility that Louisville might be ranked higher than us on Monday, ugh.
