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Kentucky stays unbeaten, eliminates Florida Gators in SEC

 
Published March 14, 2015

NASHVILLE — Like two previous victories over Florida this season earned with stronger finishes, top-ranked Kentucky took heart in having more energy after halftime than the pesky Gators.

Now the Wildcats can focus on a stronger start to their next SEC tournament game.

Aaron Harrison and Karl-Anthony Towns each scored 13 points and Kentucky shut down Florida in the second half to pull away for a 64-49 victory in Friday's SEC tournament quarterfinal.

This game followed the same hard-fought pattern as the two previous matchups, with the Gators initially taking charge before Kentucky seized control in the second half with its size and depth.

"The reality of it is, we didn't play with as much energy as Florida played with to start the game," Kentucky coach John Calipari said. "I told them at halftime, if that's what we have in store, like that's how we're going to do this, we're going to have some problems.

"I thought in the later part of the game, we found that combination of Andrew (Harrison), Aaron, Tyler (Ulis), Trey (Lyles) or Dakari (Johnson). And see, that's the advantage we have."

Those advantages helped Kentucky (32-0) outrebound Florida 39-33, including a 16-11 edge offensively that created extra chances and earned frequent trips to the free-throw line. Towns also had 12 boards. Kentucky hit 19 of 23 from the line, while Florida (16-17) was 3 of 5.

"They outrebounded us a little bit, but the difference in the game was the free-throw line," Florida coach Billy Donovan said. "Twenty-three attempts to our five was a huge factor in the game. ... If you take away the free-throw line, it's pretty consistent all the way through."

Willie Cauley-Stein added nine points for the Wildcats, who tied the longest win streak in school history and advanced to Saturday's semifinal against Auburn.

Jon Horford scored 15 points and Eli Carter 11 for the eighth-seeded Gators, who made just two of their final 12 shots and were 9 of 27 from the field after halftime.

Florida shot 39 percent but got just four points from Dorian Finney-Smith one game after he scored 23 with 11 rebounds against Alabama.

Kentucky had a lot to do with that. The Wildcats started the postseason sharply in their quest for a ninth national championship, a goal that players and coach John Calipari said trumps the issue of going unbeaten. The Wildcats insisted that losing in the conference tournament wasn't the worst thing if they still won the NCAA title.

No. 22 Ark. 80, Tennessee 72: Rashad Madden made four late free throws that helped Arkansas overcome blowing a big lead.

The second-seeded Razorbacks (25-7) led 55-35 early in the second half before missing 12 of their final 15 shots, a drought that let the Volunteers rally to 69-65 with 3½ minutes left.

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Madden (nine points) then made all of his attempts to start Arkansas' path toward victory at the foul line. The Razorbacks (25-7) made seven of their next 10 attempts and 32 of 39 overall.

Senior guard Josh Richardson had team highs of 22 points and 10 rebounds for the 10th-seeded Volunteers (16-16).

Auburn 73, LSU 70, OT: KT Harrell scored 15 straight for Auburn, including a 3 in the final second of regulation to force overtime, and the 13th-seeded Tigers upset No. 4 seed LSU.

Auburn (15-19) won for the third time in as many days with the senior guard taking over the game in the final 2:35 of regulation and the opening minutes of overtime. Harrell outscored LSU 11-3 with his 3 from the top of the key with 0.7 seconds left tying it up at 64, and he scored the first four points of overtime on free throws giving Auburn its first lead of the game.

Auburn faces top-ranked Kentucky in the semifinals.

Harrell matched his career high with 29 points, hitting 15 of 18 at the free throw line. Malcolm Canada added 14 points for Auburn. LSU (22-10) now waits to learn its NCAA Tournament destination, having lost two of its past three.