| Wall's World | ||||
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With the game tied at 70, the freshman guard from Raleigh, N.C. and most hyped UK freshman in some time, came down and hit a step back jumper with .05 seconds remaining to lift UK to a hard fought 72-70 win over Miami (Ohio) Monday night at Rupp Arena. Wall's 18th and 19th points were undoubtedly the two biggest of the night and his young career. "That's a shot I worked on with coach (Rod) Strickland all week," Wall said. "There was six seconds left and coach said 'go make a play' and I just made a tough shot." Before the season, UK coach John Calipari said he wanted to play non-conference foes that were going to cause his squad some problems. The Wildcats had a big problem with the Redhawks. Behind six first-half three pointers by forward Nick Winbush, Miami (Ohio) raced out to a 36-18 lead with a little over seven minutes remaining. In all, the Redhawks connected on 10 of 16 three's in the first 20 minutes en route to shooting 54.2 percent for the half. But aided by a trio of Darnell Dodson three pointers, the Cats closed the half on an 18-3 run to close the gap to 39-36 at the intermission. But the Cats still had a fight on their hands all the way down to the wire. A Wall fastbreak dunk with 8:02 remaining brought the Cats even and UK took it's first lead since 16-14 on a DeMarcus Cousins putback with 7:24 left. Cousins scored all 10 of his points and pulled down all 10 of his rebounds in the second half. "I thought he was tremendous," Calipari said. "He wears his emotions on his sleeve. That negative physiology is contagious. But for that four minute stretch he dominated the game." But the Redhawks had a lot of fight left. In a game that included 10 ties and eight lead changes, Miami's Kenny Hayes' three-pointer from the top of the key with :08 seconds left tied the game at 70, setting up Wall's heroics. "You have to have catalysts," Calipari said. "John's play is what I wanted him to do. That's how we play." It's obvious the Redhawks' strategy was to limit the UK's fastbreak points. They succeeded, limiting the Cats to just eight fastbreak points. In all, the Redhawks torched the Cats beyond the arc, sinking a ridiculous 15 of 26 three pointers, a Rupp Arena record. Winbush went off for 26 points on 8 of 10 shooting beyond the arc, another Rupp Arena mark. "For us to win against a team that went 15 of 26 from the three-point line, I still can't believe we won the game," Calipari said. "I was ecstatic when we got down 18. I wanted to see how we react. they all said, 'we're not losing this game.' It was kind of fun watching it." Comments (0)
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