Fouls stopped the clock, but they weren’t enough to stop Kentucky in its 82-70 win over Baylor at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to advance UK to its second consecutive Final Four appearance. The Cats go on to face Louisville for the first time in the NCAA since 1983 and first time ever in a Final Four.
“We know it’s gonna be a good game,” senior guard Darius Miller said. “They played us really close the first game, so we gotta come out ready. Right now, we’re just trying to enjoy the win that we had today.”
The physicality of the game was evident from the start, with a Flagrant 1 foul charged to Baylor forward Quincy Acy in the opening minutes, and the Cats struggled to keep up with Baylor’s length, falling behind despite an early lead 10-5 with 16:15 to go in the half.
“We knew they were going to make runs,” freshman forward Kyle Wiltjer said. “We just wanted to stay calm and just play our game, and we did and that is why we got off to a pretty good start ourselves.”
Freshman point guard Marquis Teague sunk a 3-pointer to tie the Bears at 10-10, then a steal by sophomore forward Terrence Jones led to a one-handed slam from freshman forward Anthony Davis, bringing Cats fans to a roar and that gave a timeout opportunity for the Cats to refocus.
“I just told them, ‘We got to stop on the gas here, guys,’” UK head coach John Calipari said. “I didn’t want them to build too much confidence.”
UK was on a 7-0 run at that point, and it fueled a 16-0 run to lead 21-10 with 11:30 left in the half.
“This team hasn’t been rattled all year,” Calipari said. “We’ve had teams come at us and play absolutely out of their minds, but to do it for 40 minutes is a little tougher.”
That seemed to set up the first of a series of runs for the Cats. Baylor would end a run just in time to spark another. After a dunk by Davis and a 7-0 run, the Cats led 30-15 with 7:12 to play in the half. The Bears ended that in time for UK score another six straight points, leading 36-17 with 5:03 left.
“We knew we just had to get solid on the defensive end and we wanted to be aggressive on offense, get out in transition and make plays,” Teague said.
Jones had one point in the first half, but tallied a career-high six assists by the end of the first 20 minutes. He scored 12 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had six assists on the game.
“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Jones said.” Once I got to the hole, Anthony (Davis) was just so wide open out of the basket, I was just throwing lobs at him.”
The Cats filtered into the locker room at halftime leading by 20 at 42-22 led by freshman forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Kidd Gilchrist had 19 points (17 at the half) and five rebounds on the game.
“He wants to win so bad, he’ll do whatever it takes,” Teague said about Kidd-Gilchrist. “He just came out on fire and we kept feeding him. He’s been aggressive and he was finishing, so he played great today for us.”
UK expanded on its 20-point lead at the start of the half and led by as many as 23 points on the game.
But fouls slowed the pace of the game more so than they did in the first half.
The teams combined for 50 fouls on the game, and a hard foul on Davis sent him to the bench on and off in the second half, recovering from a minor knee injury. Davis recorded 18 points and 11 rebounds.
“I just bumped knees with Perry Jones and it started hurting real bad,” Davis said. “But I knew my team needed me to play. I wasn’t going to sit out, especially with a trip to the Final Four, and all of us want to go to the Final Four.”
While the game transformed from a game of runs to a game of 50 percent second half shooting from the field, Baylor showed up in the second half to cut its deficit, although it didn’t come within single-digit range.
“I think we made it tough on them on every shot, even shots they did make,” Jones said. “There was a hand up or two people on somebody. I think they played a really good game, especially in the second half to fight back the way they did.”
After several trips to the line for both teams, disrupting either from getting into any particular rhythm, UK led 73-56 with 3:32 left to play.
The Cats are set to play Louisville in New Orleans for the NCAA Tournament semifinals. Tip-off is set for 6:09 p.m.
“It feels real good to accomplish this,” Teague said. “This was one of our goals, to make it to the Final Four, but we still got work ahead of us.”
South Region All-Tournament Team:
MOP: Michael Kidd-Gilchrist – 43 points, 15 rebounds
Anthony Davis – 27 points, 23 rebounds
Doron Lamb – 35 points
Quincy Acy – 42 points, 23 rebounds
Christian Watford – 27 points, 5 rebounds