National Basketball Association
Kentucky 72, Georgia 64
When: 9:00 PM ET, Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Where: Stegeman Coliseum, Athens, Georgia
Officials:
# Patrick Adams, # Jim Burr, # Doug Sirmons
Attendance:
10523
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 1 Kentucky 72, Georgia 64: Freshman Karl-Anthony Towns matched a season high with 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds to help the visiting Wildcats survive a strong upset bid by the Bulldogs and improve to 30-0.
Aaron Harrison scored 16 points and twin brother Andrew added 12 as Kentucky (17-0 SEC) closed the game with a 16-2 run after trailing by as many as nine in the second half. Devin Booker scored nine points for the Wildcats, who made nine of their final 13 shots from the field in the final nine minutes.
Nemanja Djurisic and Marcus Thornton, playing their final home games, scored 18 and 14 points, respectively, as Georgia (19-10, 10-7) fell to 0-16 versus No. 1 teams - including 0-10 against Kentucky. Kenny Gaines added 11 for the Bulldogs, who were 3-for-17 from 3-point range but shot 60.5 percent from inside the arc.
Aaron Harrison, who sat for much of the first half with two fouls, scored nine straight Wildcats points to put Kentucky ahead 41-37 before Gaines' driving bucket put Georgia on top 45-43 with 12:45 left. The Bulldogs took a 50-43 lead with a little more than 11 minutes to play when Frazier sent the Stegeman Coliseum crowd into a frenzy by capping an 11-0 run with a contested 3-pointer from some 26 feet and extended their advantage to 56-47 on Yante Maten's putback with 9:12 left.
The Wildcats recorded the next seven points, and after falling behind 62-56 after a pair of Thornton free throws, scored the next six - including Willie Cauley-Stein's dunk after an offensive rebound completed a four-point play following Aaron Harrison's missed free throw. Kentucky went ahead for good 65-62 on Towns' three-point play with 2:53 remaining and Towns' bucket 47 seconds later stretched the advantage to five.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Andrew Harrison scored seven straight points - four on a pair of free throws and a jumper following a flagrant 1 foul on Gaines - to give Kentucky a 32-27 lead, but Djurisic's driving bucket at the buzzer capped a 14-point first-half performance and made it 32-32 at the break. ... The Wildcats trailed 3-2 - their first deficit in more than 145 minutes dating back to the first half of its 66-48 victory over Tennessee four games ago. ... Thornton tied a school record by playing in his 129th contest, which featured 10 ties and 18 lead changes.
Top Game Performances
| Kentucky |
|
Georgia |
|
Karl-Anthony Towns 19 |
Scoring |
Nemanja Djurisic 18 |
|
Tyler Ulis 4 |
Assists |
Charles Mann 6 |
|
Karl-Anthony Towns 7 |
Rebounds |
Yante Maten 7 |
|
Aaron Harrison 5 |
Free Throws Made |
Nemanja Djurisic 4 |
|
Willie Cauley-Stein 1 |
Steals |
N/A |
|
Willie Cauley-Stein 2 |
Blocks |
Yante Maten 3 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Kentucky
|
72 |
39.7 |
4-15 |
18-25 |
8 |
35 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
| Georgia
|
64 |
47.3 |
3-17 |
9-18 |
13 |
32 |
4 |
0 |
11 |
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