What looked to be a replay of the Elite Eight matchup last year in the first half, turned into a domination defensively by Kentucky in the second. Kentucky went into the half down by eight, and faced what looked to be another hard to watch second half. But Kentucky found their form at the break, and quickly turned things around. Thanks in large part to Brandon Knight who set a new career high with 30 points, and the guy that Rick Pitino called "the most underrated player in college basketball" Josh Harrellson.
Knight hit his first attempt from three in the first 2 minutes of the game, and that was just a sample of things yet to come. He slashed to the basket, shot from outisde, and played with more aggressiveness than he has shown all year. But even his 15 first half points wasn't enough to keep the Cats from falling behind by 8 at the half. It was mostly fouls that allowed WVU to get the halftime lead, with 11 fouls being called on the Cats in the first half, compared to just 4 on WVU. But, Brandon came out with the same fire he had shown in the first half, and put together arguably his best game of the year. He shot 9-20 from the floor and 3-8 from deep. But it was his 9-10 from the charity stripe that sealed the game, with 4 of them coming in the closing minuet of the game.
Josh Harrellson put together a brilliant performance scoring 15 points and grabbing 8 boards for the game. But what was huge, was the timely offensive rebounds that he turned into points during key stretches in the game. Every time Kentucky needed a big play, it seemed the man they call "Jorts" always had a part in it. Harrellson shot 7-10 from the floor with the only blemish on his stat sheet being 1-5 from the line. Josh along with Brandon just showed a "refuse to lose" attitude, something they will surely need in their next game that will be undoubtedly against a very good Ohio ST. team.
Knight and Harrellson didn't get much help from the rest of the team yesterday. The two combined for 45 of the teams 71 points, while the other 6 players that saw action combined for only 26. The only other Cat that reached double figures was Terrence Jones with 12 points to go along with 10 boards. Jones found his form in the second half, shooting 3-5 from the floor and an impressive 6-8 from the line.
Then there was the great defensive play by DeAndre Liggins. Liggins asked to be put on Joe Mazzulla after he ended up with 15 points in the first half and held him to only five in the second. When Bob Huggins put WVUs best three point shooter Casey Mitchell in the game, he quickly caught fire hitting two straight 3 point shots to give the lead back to the EERs at 55-51. Liggins moved his self to guarding Mitchell and quickly shut him down as well. DeAndre didn't have a great offensive game scoring just 3 points, but had an impressive stat sheet regardless. Liggins recorded 9 rebounds to go along with 4 assist and 2 blocks all while scoring just 3 points on 1-2 shooting and 1-2 from the line.
Kentucky played a good game against the Mountaineers all while getting a little payback for the ending to last years game. Funny thing... I didn't see Flowers doing the John Wall dance after the game yesterday.
Enjoy this win, and get ready for what will be the Cats toughest test of the year in the sweet sixteen against the Buckeyes.
Now I know the Buckeyes haven't won their second round game yet, but let's face it, it's us of course that's who we're going to face next.
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