Kentucky didn't get its best performances from its star freshmen. Against Ole Miss in a Thursday afternoon quarterfinal, it wasn't necessary.
The Wildcats advanced to Saturday's SEC tournament semifinals with a 75-66 victory over the Rebels despite mediocre offensive output from their first-team All-SEC freshmen, guard Brandon Knight and forward Terrence Jones.
"It shows we have a lot of good players other than us on our team that can step up and make plays," Knight said.
Kentucky will play Alabama in Saturday's first semifinal at the Georgia Dome, a 1 p.m. game.
Playing in front of a crowd that was perhaps 80 percent Kentucky fans, the Wildcats took an early lead that they never relinquished. Ole Miss, in all likelihood needing to win the tournament to get into the NCAA tournament, made Kentucky work for the win. The Rebels were within two points with 1:47 to play, but they were undone by dismal shooting, particularly guard Chris Warren.
"I thought the effort was certainly good enough for us to have the opportunity to advance," Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy said. "Execution failed us a bit."
While Knight and Jones went 0-for-8 on 3-point shots and needed 26 shots to score 24 points, forward Josh Harrellson gave Kentucky 13 points with seven rebounds while guard Doron Lamb scored a team-high 19 points with 3-for-4 shooting from 3-point range.
"What happened was, Doron Lamb offensively kept us in the game," Kentucky coach John Calipari said.
Lamb and DeAndre Liggins also rotated on Warren, Ole Miss' 18.9-point scorer and first-team All-SEC selection. Warren, who played 79 of a possible 80 minutes in Ole Miss' two tournament games, didn't score a basket until 1:35 remained in the first half. Repeatedly firing up quick 3-pointers, Warren was 5-for-20 overall and 4-for-15 from 3-point range for 20 points. Ole Miss shot 33.9 percent from the field to Kentucky's 47.5 percent.
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