Indiana had already used Kentucky once this season to announce its return to college basketball prominence. Kentucky wasn’t about to let the Hoosiers turn the rematch into NCAA tournament lore.
Two of the most storied programs in the game met in the South regional semifinal at the Georgia Dome on Friday night, where the Wildcats were OK with simply looking like the one with the No. 1 overall seed in the tournament.
On a night when short-handed No. 1 seed North Carolina got taken to overtime by No. 13 Ohio, No. 1 Kentucky (35-2) turned a valiant effort from No. 4 Indiana into triple digits and a 102-90 win.
With five players in double-digits and by hitting 35-of-37 free throws (94.6 percent), the Wildcats topped 100 points for the first time in an NCAA tournament since 1996 when they did it twice on the way to a national title.
In doing it Friday, Kentucky earned a trip to its third consecutive Elite Eight under Coach John Calipari. The Wildcats will face No. 3 Baylor in a 2:20 p.m. tip on Sunday.
“Indiana played great, and we just happened to play a little bit better,” Calipari said.
Kentucky avenged one of its only two losses all season – Dec. 10 in Assembly Hall on Christian Watford’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer. Watford rolled up 27 points Friday night, the Wildcats had no answer for Victor Oladipo on the drive, and Kentucky star Anthony Davis got in some déjà vu foul trouble, but the Wildcats didn’t slow down long enough to sweat it.
Playing in front of a Kentucky-fan dominated crowd this time, the Wildcats maintained a 3-point halftime lead until Davis could return while putting Indiana into some foul trouble of its own. Big Ten freshman of the year Cody Zeller picked up two fouls in seven seconds in the first half; Oladipo picked up two fouls in seven seconds in the second half.
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist kept offensive control for Kentucky until Davis returned, on his way to 24 points, 10 rebounds, and 10-for-10 shooting from the free throw line. He was one of four Kentucky players perfect from the stripe, along with Doron Lamb (8-for-8), Marquis Teague (6-for-6), and Darius Miller (5-for-5).
The Kentucky team which starts three freshmen and two sophomores made 16 consecutive free throws in the final 4:49.
Indiana (27-9) came one win short of matching its win total of the previous three years, but without many regrets.
“When you do everything you can do and you give every ounce of fight that you have, you can move forward,” Indiana’s fourth year coach Tom Crean said. “…We did a lot of good things. They shot 20 more free throws. That’s the game.”
In the most marquee matchup of the NCAA tournament so far, Kentucky and Indiana matched it by shooting close to 50 percent apiece from the floor – the Hoosiers 52 percent, and Kentucky 48 percent.
The Hoosiers scored more points in the loss – 90 -- than any other team, win or lose, had managed in the entire NCAA tournament. The 50-47 halftime score, Kentucky’s lead, looked like a few finals from earlier in the NCAA tournament.
“They had more lay-ups in the first half than we have had scored on us for the year,” Calipari said.
The two teams lit it up, even without their leading scorers on the floor for much of the first half.
National player of the year candidate Davis played only the first six minutes of the first half, finding foul trouble for the first time since the previous Indiana game Dec. 10. He’d had no more than three fouls in the 27 games since.
Between muscle memory or just aggressive moves to the basket by Indiana’s Oladipo, Davis was back on the bench with 14:05 to go in the first half. But the Kentucky faithful only had about 42 seconds to dwell on any here-we-go-again thoughts before Zeller was on the bench too, after picking up two fouls in seven seconds.
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