Final
UK beats UGA, stays unbeaten
Mar 4, 2015 - 6:59 AM Athens, GA (SportsNetwork.com) - Kentucky put a scare into Big Blue Nation, but Karl-Anthony Towns and the top-ranked Wildcats found a way to win another close game.Towns scored 17 of his 19 points in the second half and No. 1 Kentucky rallied past Georgia 72-64 in front of a raucous Stegeman Coliseum crowd to remain unbeaten.
The Bulldogs had Kentucky on the ropes, leading by nine past the midpoint of the second half. But like it has so many times this season, the Wildcats flipped the switch at the right time.
Andrew Harrison's triple at 8:50 sparked a 7-0 run. Aaron Harrison then got fouled while converting a difficult transition layup and missed the free throw, but Willie Cauley-Stein went after the rebound and slammed it home to cut Kentucky's deficit to two.
Aaron Harrison banked in a difficult runner to tie it at 62 just before the final media timeout and Towns netted a three-point play, giving Kentucky its first lead since early in the second half.
Towns made another layup on Kentucky's next trip down the court, and Georgia went more than five minutes without scoring down the stretch.
Aaron Harrison scored 16 points and his brother Andrew had 12 for Kentucky (30-0, 17-0 SEC), which will try to polish off a perfect regular season when it hosts Florida on Saturday.
"Our defense and playmaking was good down the stretch," Wildcats head coach John Calipari said. "We made the plays that we needed to make."
Nemanja Djurisic paced Georgia (19-10, 10-7) with 18 points, and fellow senior Marcus Thornton chipped in 14 on Senior Night.
Kentucky didn't commit a turnover until 13:54 of the second half. It came during an 11-0 Bulldogs run that put the hosts in front, 50-43, with 11:10 to play. J.J. Frazier put the finishing touches on the flurry with a near ill- advised 3-pointer from well beyond NBA range that brought the crowd to a frenzy and forced a timeout.
Kentucky outscored Georgia 29-14 the rest of the way.
Neither team led by more than three over the game's first 18 minutes. There were five ties and 14 lead changes before Andrew Harrison's personal 7-0 run gave Kentucky a 32-27 edge two minutes before halftime.
Yante Maten then split a pair of free throws, Charles Mann converted a layup in transition and Djurisic beat the buzzer with a heavily-contested layup to send the two teams into halftime tied at 32.
Game Notes
Georgia had won three straight games ... The Bulldogs shot 3-for-17 from behind the arc and 9-for-18 from the foul line ... Georgia outscored Kentucky 40-36 in the paint ... The Bulldogs will visit Auburn on Saturday.
- KENTUCKY: 72
GEORGIA: 64
Final
Mar 3 11:24 PM - 304
roots - 329
roots - 319
roots - 309
roots - 299
roots - 259
roots - 212
roots - 229
roots - 245
roots - 269
roots - 233
roots - 269
roots - 259
roots - 221
roots - 193
roots - KENTUCKY: 32
GEORGIA: 32
Halftime
Mar 3 10:04 PM - KENTUCKY: 0
GEORGIA: 0
1st Half - 20:00
Mar 3 9:11 PM
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