Indiana University Athletics
KENTUCKY NIPS HOOSIERS IN OT
12/8/1998 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
KENTUCKY NIPS HOOSIERS IN OT
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Scripps Howard) -- Indiana's "Comeback Kids" were at it again -- at the end of regulation.
But No. 5 Kentucky, which returns two starters from last season's "Comeback Cats" who went on to win the national championship, also know something about dealing with pressure situations.
After Indiana's rousing comeback, the Wildcats regrouped. They scored the first eight points of overtime in posting a 70-61 victory Tuesday night as Hoosier coach Bob Knight became the 16th man to coach 1,000 Division I college basketball games.
"I got a little grayer," Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said. "It was a fun game to watch for you guys, but it was a tough one tonight. I feel really fortunate to come away with the win. It was another great defensive effort on our kids' part."
Scott Padgett hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to start the Wildcats' run at the outset of the overtime.
"Padgett coming out and hitting that 3 to start out really injected a lot of energy to our team," Smith said.
"In overtime you want to stay aggressive and really attack. We didn't talk about negative things. We told them they had to do a better job of guarding their 3-point shooters."
The Hoosiers, 0-for-7 from 3-point range in the first half, hit three 3s in a 9-0 run in the last 1:08 of regulation to force overtime. After Luke Recker hit two straight 3-pointers to narrow Kentucky's margin to three, Dane Fife nailed a trey from the right wing to tie it, 51-51, with 1.7
seconds remaining. IU batted away Padgett's three-quarter-court inbounds pass to send the gameinto overtime.
"We tried to shoot 3's at that time. I felt we couldn't get back shooting twos," Knight said. "Fife did a good job getting set for the last shot that put the game into overtime.
"We got into overtime, but we ran out of gas."
Heshimu Evans scored a game-high 22 points for the Wildcats. He tied teammate Michael Bradley for the game-high in rebounds (nine). Luke Recker led IU with 18 points. A.J. Guyton added 15,12 in the second half.
Knight, who was charged with a technical foul in overtime, wasn't in a reflective mood after the game.
"I didn't know about it (this being his 1,000th career game) until Friday, that's how much of a distraction it was," he said.
Neither team could shoot in the first half as Kentucky stumbled to a 21 16 lead. But for the sake of what many consider the best regular-season rivalry in the nation -- with apologies to Duke and North Carolina -- both teams heated up immensely in the second half.
In the end, there was another constant: Kentucky won its fifth straight in the series, and seventh of its last eight.
"We were better tonight," Smith said. "I don't know how much better we are. Obviously we won the game, so we feel we're better. But we have a long ways to go."
Knight wasn't necessarily sure Kentucky was better than the Hoosiers.
"We kind of got stuck on 42," he said, referring to the Wildcats' boosting their lead to 51-42 before IU's late barrage. "That's one thing we didn't want to let happen. We thought they would be too hard to catch ... if they got too far ahead. Our kids hung in there and got it back to overtime."
Kentucky was 23-for-27 from the line (85.2 percent), its best performance of the season.
In the first half, the Wildcats shot 25.8 percent from the floor (8-for-31) while Indiana wasn't much better, hitting 28.0 percent (7-for-25).
Kentucky's defense blocked six shots in the first half and nine for the game.
