KNOXVILLE – The Tennessee men’s basketball team stunned second-ranked Kentucky this afternoon.
The Volunteers lost a 19-point second-half lead before scoring the final nine points of their 74-65 Southeastern Conference victory over the Wildcats.
Nineteenth-ranked UT (21-7, 9-5) removed even the slightest possibility of missing the NCAA tournament by topping the Wildcats (27-2, 12-2).
Senior wing J.P. Prince led the Vols with 20 points, including six in the final 1 minute, 34 seconds. He scored inside to break a tied score, and he made all four of his free throws in the final 24 seconds to seal the win. In between Prince’s points, sophomore guard Scotty Hopson – a former high school All-American from Kentucky – made a 3-pointer from the left wing to give UT a 70-65 lead with 37.6 seconds left.
National player of the year candidate John Wall, a freshman point guard, led Kentucky with 19 points. Fellow All-America candidate DeMarcus Cousins, also a freshman, had 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Hopson added 15 points for the Vols, who survived a tough shooting day from senior forward Wayne Chism. Chism had eight points on 4-for-12 shooting from the field, 0-for-7 on 3s.
Kentucky wasn’t much better from the perimeter, though, shooting a chilly 2-for-22 from long range.
The Wildcats stayed in the game with a few big plays from Wall midway through the second half and a 21-for-27 performance from the free-throw line. UT finished 12-for-17 from the line, but five of those trips came in the final 94 seconds.
Read Sunday’s Times Free Press for more UT coverage.
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