Sunday, February 20, 2000
Kentucky 70, Georgia 64
Prince benched; 'Cats employ balanced attack
BY NEIL SCHMIDT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEXINGTON, Ky. — The punishment of three Kentucky starters, coach Tubby Smith said, was for one game only. One had to wonder if UK's 3-point shooting resurgence would have the same shelf life.
The 19th-ranked Wildcats, on pace for their worst 3-point percentage in school history, enjoyed an aberration Saturday with 11 such scores. They needed them all to rally for a 70-64 victory over visiting Georgia.
“It's pretty weird,” UK junior guard Saul Smith said. “After Wednesday against Alabama (going 2-of-23 on 3-pointers), people said, "UK can't shoot.' So today we put 30 of them up (29, actually), and they just started falling. I don't understand it.”
Count him among the masses. But the increased 3-point emphasis Tubby Smith promised last week — the 29 attempts were the most in two seasons — looked worthwhile against Georgia's zone defense.
The 11 3s represented half of UK's baskets.
“I'll zone that lineup every day,” Georgia coach Jim Harrick said. “We were going to play the percentages and get beat from the outside.”
It seemed a sound strategy, especially when UK (19-7, 9-3 Southeastern Conference) took the court without Tayshaun Prince, Desmond Allison and Keith Bogans. Those are three of UK's top four 3-point scorers. With UK instead starting 6-foot-11 Jules Camara, 6-10 Jamaal Magloire and 6-10 Marvin Stone, the Bulldogs (10-15, 3-9) were even more inclined to protect the interior.
Prince sat the bench the entire game; Allison and Bogans were held out the first 12:26. Tubby Smith said those players were being disciplined for “academic deficiencies” for Saturday only.
Why did Prince get a tougher punishment?
“That's the difference in the disciplinary action that we took, the level of disobedience,” Smith said.
Prince, second on the team in scoring (12.9 avg.) and rebounding (5.7), had averaged a team-high 33.4 minutes. Tubby Smith made Prince off limits to the media, but his teammates tried to spin his absence into a positive.
“Being down nine points, without maybe your best player, a lot of teams might fold,” sophomore guard J.P. Blevins said. “We didn't.”
Down 44-35 with 17 minutes left, UK's .286 season 3-point percentage seemed set to stall a comeback. But after a Magloire dunk, UK looked outside.
Its next six field goals would be 3-pointers. The fifth of those, by Bogans with 10:24 left, gave UK the lead at 53-50. UK would make seven of nine 3-pointers in less than nine minutes.
“It really is contagious,” Blevins said. “You see a guy knock down a (3-point) shot, and you know you can make one, too.”
UK had nice balance, placing five scorers in double figures, and saw a number of highlights:
• Blevins had career highs of 14 points and four assists with no turnovers.
• Camara, looking fully recovered from his foot injury, recorded a double-double with 12 points and a career-high 12 rebounds. He added three blocks and a career-high three assists.
• Magloire totaled 11 points and 13 rebounds, his 11th double-double of the season.
• UK's 21 offensive rebounds and 18 assists matched season highs.
UK played nearly the entire second half with a six-player rotation: Blevins, Saul Smith, Magloire, Camara, Bogans and Allison.
“We've got a bunch of hard-nosed kids,” Tubby Smith said. “Today I thought we showed some real grit to fight through fatigue, guys playing longer minutes than they usually have.”
The Wildcats expressed no worry that Smith's disciplinary actions would hurt their preparations for Wednesday's game at No.5 Tennessee.
“The message got through,” Allison said. “We'll hit the books harder and play harder.”
GEORGIA (64)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Evans 30 5-7 2-4 3-8 1 3 12
Patrick 33 2-7 2-2 3-4 2 2 7
Coleman 35 6-13 4-8 3-10 1 2 16
White 40 3-6 0-0 2-4 4 3 7
Layne 34 5-16 3-3 0-0 1 4 18
Jones 13 0-1 2-2 0-1 0 1 2
Dryden 15 1-4 0-0 1-2 0 2 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 22-54 13-19 12-29 9 17 64
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.407, FT-.684. 3-Point Goals:
7-17, .412 (Patrick 1-1, White 1-2, Layne 5-13,
Jones 0-1). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots:
None. Turnovers: 13 (Layne 4, Evans 3, Coleman 2,
Patrick 2, Jones). Steals: 2 (Layne, Patrick).
KENTUCKY (70)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Stone 21 1-3 4-4 1-1 0 2 6
Camara 33 5-11 2-2 9-12 3 2 12
Magloire 35 3-7 5-9 4-13 2 2 11
Blevins 31 5-11 0-1 2-2 4 2 14
Smith 34 3-8 2-2 1-3 5 2 11
Bogans 22 4-13 2-2 1-2 1 2 13
Tackett 4 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Allison 20 1-4 0-0 1-3 3 4 3
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 22-58 15-20 19-36 18 16 70
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.379, FT-.750. 3-Point Goals:
11-29, .379 (Blevins 4-8, Smith 3-8, Bogans 3-10,
Allison 1-3). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 3
(Camara 3). Turnovers: 13 (Camara 5, Smith 4,
Magloire 3, Allison). Steals: 3 (Blevins, Bogans,
Smith).
__________________________________
Georgia 35 29 - 64
Kentucky 30 40 - 70
__________________________________
Technical fouls: None. A: 22,651. Officials:
Gerald Boudreaux, Kerry Sitton.
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