After much hype and anticipation throughout the week, Kentucky avenged its only regular season loss in its rematch with Indiana on Friday night as the Cats defeated the Hoosiers 102-90 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. The 102 points are the most UK has scored against Indiana since it recorded 109 in 1969.
“That was a fast game,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “I love coaching those kinds of games … There are games that are going to be like that, and we’ve got to be prepared to play.”
UK (35-2) shot 95 percent from the line in its win over Indiana (25-8) to advance to the Elite Eight game against Baylor (27-7) at 2:20 p.m. on Sunday.
Of the 37 free throws UK attempted, four Cats shot perfect from the line. Freshman forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist shot 10-for-10, sophomore guard Doron Lamb was 8-for-8, freshman point guard Marquis Teague was 6-for-6 and senior guard Darius Miller shot 5-for-5.
“Today in the pregame, we all made our foul shots,” Lamb said. “So I knew today would be a great time for making foul shots today, and we did.”
The Cats opened up with a 3-point basket by sophomore forward Terrence Jones, who went on to score the first five points for the Cats.
Both squads battled in the opening minutes of the half, but UK went on a 9-2 run to lead 16-11 with 14:58 to play.
Early foul calls on both teams slowed the pace of the game and sent freshman forward Anthony Davis to the bench in the first half after six minutes of play.
“By the second half, my teammate told me, ‘You’re fine,’” Davis said. “‘Just come out and play your game. We need you to steal, block shots, rebound and score the ball.’ So that’s what I did in the second half.”
After a dunk by Jones that brought fans to their feet, UK led 31-22 with 9:56 to play. But Indiana strung together a 6-0 run to close that gap 31-28 with 8:15 left in the half.
The Cats allowed the Hoosiers to shoot 58 percent from the field, but held them shooting 2-for-7 from behind the arc.
“I don’t think we came out lacking intensity or lacking focus or anything like that,” Miller said. “They just did a great job of executing their game plan and coming out ready to play.”
Junior forward Christian Watford was the lone Hoosier scoring in double-figures in the first half with 17 points, while Jones recorded 12 points and four rebounds for the Cats and Kidd-Gilchrist tallied 11 points and five rebounds.
“I was in a slump for a long time,” Kidd-Gilchrist said. “It was just confidence, I think. It was just building up.”
The two teams battled throughout the first half, swapping four lead changes in the first 20 minutes of play.
“We didn’t start as well as we would have liked tonight,” freshman forward Kyle Wiltjer said. “We knew they were going to make some shots, but we kept playing hard and then finally started making some stops.”
But both squads also combined for 22 fouls in the first half, Indiana with 12 and UK with 10. The Cats held a three-point lead over the Hoosiers at 50-47 at the half.
Although Indiana opened the second half with a bucket, with Davis back in the game, the Cats pieced together a 6-0 run at the start of the half.
Miller scored eight straight points for the Cats, expanding their lead at 64-56 with 15:42 to play. He finished the game tallying 19 points.
Kidd-Gilchrist braved three IU defenders in the post, drawing a foul on his and-one layup that forced Indiana to take a timeout and gave the Cats a 77-66 lead with 9:50 left in the game and UK held on to a lead throughout the second half and led by as many as 13 points while Kidd-Gilchrist led the Cats with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
“Mike’s a spectacular player,” Davis said. “He brings a lot of energy, scores the ball, rebounds.”
The Cats shot 50 percent from behind the arc and 48 percent from the field.
The regional final against Baylor Sunday is set to tip-off at 2:20 p.m, and the Cats are ready to refocus and concentrate on the Bears.
“We just have to be ready, listen to Coach Cal, get as much rest (Friday) and in the morning as we can,” Wiltjer said, “but then we’ve got to be ready for a quick turnaround against Baylor.”