Kentucky, Arizona Reach Final in NIT

No. 11 Kentucky held off a furious second-half comeback by No. 24 Maryland on Wednesday night and hung on for a 61-58 victory in the semifinals of the Preseason NIT at New York.

Kentucky jumped in front quickly against Maryland with Saul Smith and Tayshaun Prince nailing three-pointers in the first 3 1/2 minutes. Price finished with 21 points and nine rebounds.

Keith Bogans came off the bench for 12 of his 17 points in the first half and Kentucky took advantage of eight steals and 13 Maryland turnovers in the first 20 minutes to open a 40-27 halftime lead.

Maryland scored the first seven points of the second half, but Kentucky responded with a 7-0 run of its own, with Prince scoring five of the points.

The Terrapins kept battling and wiped out a 16-point deficit to tie the score at 52-52 with 6 1/2 minutes left on a Terence Morris basket.

Baskets by Marvin Stone, who had 13 rebounds, and Bogans, off a steal, restored a four-point lead for the Wildcats. Kentucky was still up by three with 32.6 seconds to play when Desmond Allison got tangled up with a couple of Maryland players and turned the ball over. But Juan Dixon’s three-point attempt bounced off the rim in the final seconds and Kentucky hung on for the victory.

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No. 8 Arizona 76, Notre Dame 60--The Wildcats got 22 points and 11 rebounds from Michael Wright and wore down the Irish in the other Preseason NIT semifinal.

Arizona (3-0) will play Kentucky in the tournament championship game Friday night in a rematch of the 1997 NCAA tournament championship game in Indianapolis won by Arizona, 84-79, in overtime.

Freshmen guards Gilbert Arenas and Jason Gardner directed the Arizona attack flawlessly and 7-foot-1 Loren Woods swatted away seven shots and grabbed 10 rebounds, sending Notre Dame (3-1) to its first loss under new coach Matt Doherty. Troy Murphy led Notre Dame with 22 points and David Graves had 17.

The Wildcats led from start to finish, and were up by as many as 20 points in the second half. Wright and Richard Jefferson combined for Arizona’s first 14 points and a quick lead that the Wildcats never relinquished. Jefferson finished with 13 points and seven assists.

Arenas and Gardner, called the best freshman guard tandem Arizona has ever had by Coach Lute Olson, ran the court and set up basket after basket.

Arenas, a former Van Nuys Grant High standout, scored 15 points and Gardner finished with eight points and five assists.

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No. 9 Stanford 72, Cal State Bakersfield 31--Freshman Casey Jacobsen had 15 points and the Cardinal opened a 27-point halftime lead against visiting Bakersfield, which had not played a Division I opponent in 13 years.

Ryan Mendez added 13 points as Stanford (4-0) warmed up for its showdown Saturday against No. 2 Auburn in the Wooden Classic at the Arrowhead Pond. Freshman center Curtis Borchardt had a school-record six blocks for Stanford.

Ron Selleaze had 12 points for Bakersfield (1-2), which has never beaten a Pac-10 opponent. Lovell Brown, the Roadrunners’ top scorer last season, returned from an ankle sprain but was held scoreless in 13 minutes.

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No. 17 Tennessee 79, North Carolina Asheville 63--Isiah Victor scored 18 points to help Coach Jerry Green defeat his former school as the Volunteers beat the Bulldogs at Knoxville, Tenn.

Tennessee (2-0) turned up the offense late in the first half and went on a 10-4 run over the first six minutes of the second half to defeat the Bulldogs (0-3).

The Volunteers extended their home nonconference winning streak to 17 games, dating back to 1996. Green improved to 2-0 against UNC Asheville, where he spent 13 years as a player, assistant coach and nine years as a head coach.