Bruce Pearl stood in the media room next to the University of Tennessee's basketball court Saturday afternoon and said something that would have seemed laughable a few years ago.
"There's not necessarily a better environment in college basketball than Thompson-Boling Arena," Pearl said. "It's as good as any. How about that? It's as good as any."
In the past two months, the top two ranked teams in the nation have come to Thompson-Boling and left with losses. Saturday was second-ranked Kentucky's turn.
The 19th-ranked Volunteers withstood a furious rally by the supremely talented Wildcats and scored the final nine points for a 74-65 Southeastern Conference victory.
Kentucky erased a 19-point lead in less than 12 minutes, tying the score on a DeMarcus Cousins slam with 2:10 left. But the Wildcats (27-2, 12-2) didn't score again, thanks to a series of turnovers and bad shots forced by the scrappy Vols (21-7, 9-5).
"They're a good team -- a great team, really -- but they're not unbeatable, especially in our house," said UT senior wing J.P. Prince, who scored six of his game-high 20 points in the final 94 seconds. "We've been through a lot this year, but we're still standing, and we can still beat anybody. And we just showed that."
Prince scored inside to break a tied score, and he made four or four free throws in the final 24 seconds to seal the win.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment