The Legend Grows: John Wall Leads No. 4 Kentucky To Thrilling Win Over No. 14 UConn

Kentucky managed to pull out another close victory on Wednesday night, their fourth narrow win of the season. (Previously they beat Miami of Ohio by 2, Stanford by 8 and UNC by 2.) After beating UConn by just 3 points in a game full of runs and momentum swings, John Calipari said his team was sippin’ the John Wall Kool-Aid:

“We drank the poison in the first half and listened to all the hype about John Wall and our players,” Calipari said. “We go up 12-0 and they’re acting like we won the national championship, and then Connecticut makes a run as all well-coached teams do, and it’s on.”

He also said on the ESPN broadcast that Kentucky is actually just a 5-4 team. Which is odd, ‘cause in the standings they’re 9-0. Although sometime lying to the team is what it takes to motivate them. But to be fair to the players, it has to be nearly impossible not to get caught up in the John Wall hype.

A steal and a dunk just as Sean McDonough is talking about how you’re going to be the No. 1 overall draft pick? That takes a special mix of skill, timing and psychic awareness.

Over at SB Nation’s own Sea Of Blue, they saw things similarly to how Calipari did:

For Kentucky, well, we saw exactly what John Calipari implied we should see — a really bad team having really good stretches because of their talent. Once again, UK had one more good stretches in this game than the opponent, a now-familiar theme for the 2009 Wildcats.

Follow the link to read Sea Of Blue’s full postgame analysis.

New York, NY (Sports Network) - John Wall scored 12 points in the final 7 1/2 minutes, and his three-point play with 30.8 seconds remaining proved to be the difference, as No. 4 Kentucky stayed unbeaten with an exciting 64-61 victory over 14th-ranked Connecticut at Madison Square Garden.

The game, which was part of the Big East/SEC Invitational, had an NCAA Tournament feel to it and was a coming-out party for the freshman Wall, who finished with 25 points and six steals in the dramatic win for Kentucky (9-0).

"We knew it was going to be a tough matchup. They gave us a run for our money," said Wall. "These are the most aggressive guards we played this year."

Connecticut (6-2) had several chances to tie the game in the waning seconds, but Gavin Edwards missed a three-pointer and Kemba Walker couldn't get his rushed heave to fall either.

"I can't really complain about the effort that we gave," said Walker. "We executed on offense and we played defense hard. Those guys made some tough shots, and at the end of the game they came up with the victory. They hit some tough shots. We made them work for every shot they made."

Patrick Patterson ended with 16 points for the Wildcats, who were coming off a 68-66 victory over nationally-ranked North Carolina on Saturday.

Jerome Dyson and Edwards logged 17 and 16 points, respectively, in the Huskies' second defeat at MSG, having lost to Duke in the finals of the NIT Season Tip-Off on November 27.

The game was back-and-forth throughout and fittingly came down to the closing seconds. A pair of Walker free throws pulled the Huskies within 60-59 with a little over two minutes remaining, and Kentucky turned the ball over on a shot clock violation its next time with the ball.

After Walker drained a go-ahead jumper from the left wing, Kentucky missed a three-pointer but got the rebound. The ball eventually found Wall, who drove the left side of the lane, took a body shot from Alex Oriakhi and managed to get his layup to fall with 30.8 seconds left.

Wall's free throw yielded a 63-61 lead, and Walker's shot in the lane, as well as Stanley Robinson's tip, fell short for UConn.

With 13.9 seconds left, Kentucky's Ramon Harris hit 1-of-2 free throws to keep it a one-possession game. A near turnover caused a rushed feed to Edwards, whose attempt from downtown was well off the mark.

Walker was able to gather the rebound but was off-balance when attempting his desperate heave that never touched iron.

Kentucky came out firing on all cylinders in the early going, rattling off the first 12 points of the game. Wall scored six points on the run, which featured two UConn timeouts.

The second timeout proved effective for the Huskies, who began to match the Wildcats' intensity and responded with a 10-0 run of their own. Dyson had six straight points during the stretch, and his free throw at the 8:07 mark gave Connecticut its first lead, 19-18.

The Huskies continued to attack the glass and scored six straight after the free throw to extend the margin, which was 29-23 at halftime in favor of the Big East program.

It was still a six-point game, 40-34, before a quick 10-0 spurt for the Wildcats changed the momentum yet again. Patterson and Wall each hit from downtown during the stretch, the latter giving the SEC club a 44-40 lead with a little over 11 minutes left.

Two Wall free throws and his three-point play, coming via a steal and fastbreak dunk, extended the margin to 54-47 with 7:16 remaining.

Robinson scored six straight UConn points to stay close, and Edwards cut the deficit to one, 56-55, and it was a one-possession game for the remainder of the contest.

UConn won the only other matchup between the two perennial powers, an 87-83 victory in the second round of the 2006 NCAA Tournament...DeMarcus Cousins finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds for Kentucky, which won despite shooting 39.1 percent from the field...Walker registered 12 points, eight boards and six assists, while Robinson had 10 points and nine rebounds for Connecticut, which turned the ball over 20 times and shot just 14-of-24 from the free throw line...Wall also had seven turnovers in the game.

New York, NY (Sports Network) – Dwight Hardy scored 12 points and D.J. Kennedy added 11, helping lift the St. John’s Red Storm to a 66-56 win over the Georgia Bulldogs as part of the Big East/SEC Invitational at Madison Square Garden.

Kennedy also tallied seven rebounds, five assists and four steals in the win. Justin Brownlee chipped in with 10 points for St. John’s (7-1).

Trey Thompkins paced Georgia (4-4) with a game-high 19 points to go along with seven boards and three steals. Travis Leslie had 14 points and four blocks in a losing effort.

St. John’s grabbed a 28-25 halftime lead after holding the Bulldogs to 8-of-23 shooting from the floor in the opening half.

The Red Storm picked up the offense in the second stanza by shooting 60.9 percent from the floor, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc to pull away.

St. John’s shot a season-best 50 percent (7-of-14) from beyond the arc for the game.

- Via Sports Network