COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENT : Kentucky Gets Down to Beating Arkansas : SEC: After trailing for most of the game, Wildcats rally for 95-93 overtime victory in tournament championship game.

Tenacious third-ranked Kentucky had several opportunities to quit Sunday.

But the Wildcats simply wouldn’t, overcoming deficits of 19 points in the first half, 12 points in the second and six points with 38 seconds left in overtime to beat No. 5 Arkansas, 95-93, in the championship game of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

“I’ve never been involved in something like that,” Coach Rick Pitino said. “We were dead three or four times and kept coming back. Our whole theme against Arkansas is you never celebrate when you’re ahead and never give up when you’re down.”

The Wildcats led for only 39 seconds of the 45-minute game--2-0 until falling behind only 20 seconds into the game and for the final 19.4 seconds after Anthony Epps made two free throws for a 94-93 lead.

Tony Delk made one of two free throws with six-tenths of a second to play after Arkansas’ Scotty Thurman failed on a three-point shot with two seconds to play.

It was the eighth victory in a row for the Wildcats (25-4), who earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament’s Southeast Regional.

It was the fourth league tournament title in a row for the Wildcats and their 19th overall--more than the rest of the league combined. Kentucky also won its 37th conference crown in the regular season.

“We made a marvelous comeback,” said Pitino, now 12-0 as a coach in the SEC tournament. “It’s one of the happiest moments I’ve ever had as a coach.”

Said Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson: “It was a great college basketball game. I didn’t think it would ever end. Kentucky just got the right breaks at the right time to pull out the victory.”

The game in the Georgia Dome drew a tournament-record 30,067.

The loss ended a 10-game winning streak for Arkansas (27-6).

Freshman Antoine Walker, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, led the Wildcats with 23 points.

Kentucky’s Rodrick Rhodes missed two free throws with less than two seconds to play in regulation and the game tied.