Kentucky Takes It Right to Cincinnati

Maybe the Kentucky Wildcats just grew tired of hearing all the talk about Cincinnati’s intimidation -- the Bearcats will “challenge your manhood” ... “take your heart,” according to the pregame talk.

Or maybe they decided they had had enough of Conference USA teams sending them home, something that had happened the last two years.

Whatever its motivation, Kentucky took it right to Cincinnati, 69-60, in a battle of heavyweights in the second round of the NCAA tournament’s Austin Regional at the RCA Dome on Saturday.

Kentucky (27-5) will play Utah in a regional semifinal game. The Utes were the opponent and Texas was the setting when the Wildcats won the 1998 national championship, the most recent of seven.

Cincinnati (25-8) grew weary in the game’s final stages, missing its last eight shots and failing to score in the last four minutes as the Wildcats protected and built on their lead behind the heady play of freshman point guard Rajon Rondo (16 points, seven assists, two steals).

Fellow freshman Randolph Morris was tough underneath with 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

But the Wildcats won because Chuck Hayes wouldn’t let them lose. After a quiet first half, their senior strongman took over the game during a decisive stretch of the second, scoring eight of Kentucky’s 10 points and coming up with two rebounds and a block as the Wildcats patiently built a five-point lead.

The game featured 40 minutes of remarkable intensity with bodies flying all over the floor.

In the first half, Cincinnati’s James White threw a dunk attempt off the back of the rim on a wide open look. Kentucky’s Kelenna Azubuike returned the favor in the second half, costing the Wildcats a chance to extend a five-point lead.

Kentucky went for the equivalent of a flash knockout, in boxing parlance, making six of its first nine shots and seizing early leads of 9-0 and 14-3. But Cincinnati regrouped and went into its characteristic lock-down defensive mode, contesting every shot and clawing its way back.

Point guard Jihad Muhammad, whose assists (83) to turnovers (67) ratio prompted him to call himself the Bearcats’ Achilles heel, was the catalyst at both ends. The energetic junior forced the Kentucky guards into tentative play with relentless pressure and drove the ball right at the Wildcat defense, setting his teammates up for open jump shots.

Cincinnati, which missed eight of its first 11 shots, made eight of its next 13 to grab a 35-33 halftime lead.

The Bearcats’ man-to-man defense was even better. After its initial burst, Kentucky had no answers for it, going scoreless for one stretch of 4:49 and turning the ball over four times in one series of five possessions.

The Wildcats were content to shoot from the outside and didn’t shoot a free throw until Morris went to the line for two only 41 seconds before halftime.