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Sour finish for Cats in Sweet Sixteen as Kansas State pulls off surprise


Kentucky guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drives toward the basket in the first half against Kansas State in the South Region finals Thursday night at Phillips Arena. (Kentucky Today/Tammie Brown)

By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today

ATLANTA (KT) — Kentucky fended off one set of Wildcats in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament, but couldn’t duplicate the feat in the Sweet Sixteen.

The fifth-seeded Wildcats saw their postseason run come to an end with a 61-58 loss to No 9 seed Kansas State Thursday night at Philips Arena. It marked John Calipari’s first loss in the regional semifinals in his tenure as coach of the Wildcats.

Prior to Thursday’s loss, the Wildcats were 6-0 in Sweet Sixteen games under Calipari. Kentucky ended the season at 26-11.

Calipari said the physical nature of the game was hard for his team to overcome.

“I think the game was physical,” Calipari said. “You know, there was the freedom of motion to cut and do it. It was a physical game. And it kind of got us a little out of rhythm, and it wears you down. I mean, I thought Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) got worn down. We were doing some things late. We had some turnovers that — we have a lead now, and we turn it over a little bit. And there was a foul called on a free throw, and we have a one-point lead at that time and playing like we did, which was amazing. We had our chances.”

Kansas State (25-11) will face Loyola of Chicago in the South Region finals Saturday. The Ramblers (31-5) edged Nevada 69-68 in the opening game of a doubleheader.

Kansas State guard Barry Brown hit a driving layup with 19 seconds remaining to break a 58-58 deadlock and Amaad Wainright made one of two free throws to send the Wildcats into the regional finals. Kansas State made nine shots from long range.

Kentucky missed a pair of 3-pointers — one by Quade Green and another by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — in the final seven seconds and failed to overcome an early deficit. The Wildcats committed 15 turnovers and failed to get into a consistent flow against the stingy Wildcats.

The slow-down pace suited Kansas State just fine.

“We had to fight it out, grind it out, and we did, and now we have a chance to go to the Final Four,” Wildcats coach Bruce Weber said.

PJ Washington paced Kentucky with 18 points and 15 rebounds, but missed 12 free throws. Overall, the Wildcats finished 23-37 at the free-throw line.

Gilgeous-Alexander followed with 15 points, scoring 13 of those in the first half. Gilgeius-Alexander made just one of his first seven shots from the field, but connected on 11 of 12 free throws. Gilegous-Alexander and Washington combined for 20 points in the first frame.

Kentucky trailed 33-29 at the half but scored seven of the first nine points of the second half to claim its first lead of the game. Quade Green’s 3-pointer with 17:18 remaining gave the Wildcats a 36-35 advantage.

Kansas State, known for its stingy defense and timely shooting, responded with a 9-0 run and rushed the margin to 47-38 with 12:45 remaining, putting the Wildcats into another proverbial hole that proved to be hard to overcome.

Kentucky, which trailed for just two minutes combined in wins over Davidson and Buffalo, got off to a slow start against the opposing Wildcats, who scored seven in a row to open the contest.

Kansas State connected on four of its first five field goals, including three shots from long range and built a 13-1 four minutes into the contest.

“We just wanted to keep fighting at that point,” Knox said. “We was down 12 early, but we knew we still had a lot of game left. We made our runs, they made their runs. We wanted to make sure that we just get back close in the game going into halftime and come out in the second half and fight, but we didn’t get the results that we wanted.”

Kentucky fell behind 11-0 at Arkansas last month but rallied and tied the score at 43-43 at the half before posting a dominating 87-72 win over the Razorbacks in Fayetteville, but couldn’t do it for a second time this season.

“I didn’t know we were going to go up, whatever it was, 13-1 or whatever the score was,” Weber said. “And we said we wanted to be pests like UMBC was to Virginia and they were to us, and I think we were. I’m not sure they were ready for it. We got after them and got a nice lead.”

The two teams combined for 26 fouls in the opening half, with four Kentucky players collecting more than two fouls in the first frame. The Wildcats made just six shots on 23 attempts, including just one 3-pointer on five tries in the first half.

Xavier Sneed led Kansas State with 22 points, but fouled out with 1:14 remaining.

Keith Taylor is sports editor for Kentucky Today. Reach him at keith.taylor@kentuckytoday.com or twitter @keithtaylor21.


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