St. Johns - 72 (Head Coach: Lou Carnesecca) - [Unranked]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	FT	FTA	Reb	PF	Ast	TO	Pts
Kevelin Winfree	25	2	10	1	2	4	4	1	4	5
George Johnson	26	7	15	3	3	9	5	1	5	17
Wayne McKoy	25	6	15	1	5	4	4	0	1	13
Tom Calabrese	35	4	7	2	2	4	3	5	3	10
Bernard Rencher	26	4	9	4	4	2	2	6	2	12
Ron Plair	5	0	1	0	0	2	1	0	1	0
Gordan Thomas	19	3	7	4	5	0	3	1	0	10
Frank Gilroy	4	2	3	0	1	1	0	0	1	4
Rudy Wright	20	0	2	1	2	1	2	1	2	1
Paul Berwanger	15	0	4	0	0	3	0	0	0	0
Team						4
Totals	200	28	73	16	24	34	24	15	19	72

Kentucky - 102 (Head Coach: Joe B. Hall) - [Ranked 1st by AP]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	FT	FTA	Reb	PF	Ast	TO	Pts
Jack Givens	27	3	7	2	2	7	2	2	3	8
Rick Robey	25	1	4	8	8	8	1	2	1	10
Mike Phillips	22	10	14	0	0	8	4	5	3	20
Kyle Macy	31	5	9	6	6	3	2	5	1	16
Truman Claytor	27	7	10	2	2	0	1	2	1	16
Dwane Casey	8	0	2	2	2	0	1	0	1	2
Jay Shidler	9	2	2	0	0	1	1	1	2	4
Tim Stephens	5	0	1	0	1	2	1	2	1	0
James Lee	18	5	9	2	4	7	3	0	3	12
Fred Cowan	6	1	3	2	2	2	1	0	0	4
Chuck Aleksinas	13	2	5	4	4	4	4	0	2	8
Lavon Williams	9	0	1	2	2	2	3	0	0	2
Team						2
Totals	200	36	67	30	33	46	24	19	18	102

Wildcats Roll to UKIT Title, Exit Doghouse

"I want to say this," Joe Hall said. "My team is out of the doghouse tonight."

Indeed, Kentucky finally played the game each Wildcat was waiting for, completely trouncing St. John's 102-72 in the finals of its invitational tournament last Saturday night.

The final margin reflects the way the Wildcats dominated the Redmen from beginning to end. The game figured to be much closer because 19th-ranked St. John's was the kind of team that could give top-ranked Kentucky trouble.

No way.

True, St. John's had good backcourt play. But Kentucky's was much better. Truman Claytor and Kyle Macy had 22 points between them by halftime. The Wildcats were leading 46-28 then and there was little doubt this would be THE GAME they were hoping to get.

True, St. John's had good inside play with freshman Wayne McKoy poised to threaten UK's big men. By halftime he had two points - on a goal-tending call, for goodness sake. Meanwhile, UK's Mike Phillips had 10 points, quickly asserting his team's dominance underneath. He matched his point total in the second half. There was no surprise that he was the last one announced as a member of the all-UKIT team. As such, he was the most valuable player.

True, St. John's had an especially good forward in George Johnson, another member of the all-tournament team. He tried but he was no match for the play of Jack Givens, Rick Robey and James Lee.

True, there was no part of the game that Kentucky did not dominate.

There had been plenty of anxious moments this season. True, the Cats were winning but not with the complete game that could match last year's appearances against South Carolina and Notre Dame.

Everybody was waiting for the Cats to play that well.

The wait is over. If they were ever anywhere else, the Cats are back.

Consider these scoring numbers. Claytor and Macy had 16 points each. Their outside shooting did nothing to ease St. John's concern about the way Kentucky was controlling the inside, too.

Lee scored 12 and Robey 10. Givens tallied only eight but it didn't matter.

The Wildcats scored the first six points and never trailed, winning their sixth straight game. It was their largest victory margin of the season, better than the 26-point spread that subdued Portland State in Friday's first round.

Claytor was the key figure early. He had four baskets in less than five minutes. The tempo was set for the evening.

"Rick in particular was setting good picks for me," said Claytor who made the All-UKIT team with Givens, Phillips, Johnson and Portland State's Freeman Williams. "I was concentrating and the shots fell for me. St. John's was so far off me that they couldn't recover and I was wide open."

It is significant that Robey missed the all-tournament team for the first time in his career.

"Rick is sick," Hall pointed out. "We're going to have him checked. He's been tiring easy and he's not feeling well."

The Redmen stayed close until the final five minutes of the half. Then, with Phillips forcing the actions inside, the Wildcats went on a 12-point binge. It took less than two minutes. But that was enough to decide the game and the outcome forever.

Phillips started the spree by muscling his way for two layups. Robey made two free throws. Macy hit two himself when the St. John's bench was whistled for a technical foul, then his jumper from the key and two more free throws completed the streak.

From a 30-25 deficit, the Redmen were trailing 42-25. They went three and a half minutes without a point. They missed three shots and turned the ball over three times. They were doomed.

By intermission, the Wildcats were shooting 61.3 percent. Just as important, St. John's was hitting 36.7 percent. Most of the game was played at a faster tempo than the visitors would have liked but there was nothing they could do about it. They could not control the boards and their shooting kept them from sustaining any kind of rally.

Then, just seven minutes into the second half, the Kentucky lead was 30. The subs were beginning to trickle into the lineup. But that did nothing to UK's lead.

Afterward, Hall said, "That's how we should have been playing when I was upset. It was one of our better games in a long time. I just hope we can sustain it and not be spasmodic."

"It was definitely an outstanding win. It took a great effort to beat St. John's by 30."

Lou Carnesecca, the Redmen coach, was suitably impressed.

"This club (UK) is like a big, roaring mountain coming down at you," he praised. "And I don't mean to be funny because UK isn't a funny team. They're a great, great team."

"Their shooting was unbelievable. They were hitting us with bombs outside and tanks underneath. They had the army and air force going after us."

For the record, the Wildcats shot 53.7 percent for the game. Failure to connect near the end ruined a better percentage.

St. John's, meanwhile, never did find its eye. Its final percentage was 38.4. The New Yorkers also were outrebounded 46-34. Johnson had nine but no other teammate had more than four. Phillips and Robey shared UK honors with eight.

It was a total victory for the Wildcats.

Questioned about UK forcing his team out of its offense, Carnesecca replied, "That's absolutely correct. They forced us out of everything. They're unbelievable. Just powerful."

"Our pressure defense was forcing St. John's out of its offense," Hall agreed. "It has to be a good defense when you get them out of their offense because they're a good, disciplined team."

Kentucky worked its offensive game plan well, too. The strategy called for outside shooting and screens for the guards.

"We planned that because of St. John's defense," Hall explained. "We felt we would have to look outside more because they collapse on defense. We put in the outside game and our guards shot very well." (Claytor was seven-of-10, Macy five-of-nine.)

Such strategy opened up the inside for Phillips.

"We knew they were playing in back of us," the MVP said. "We were confident we could get inside."

Kentucky, in fact, got just about anywhere it chose. The Cats had shown it could play this well before Saturday night but not for a long time. Against st. John's, virtually everything worked.

Any doubts Hall or any of his players might have had should be erased. It took some time, but, as the clichˇ goes, the Cats put it all together.

Carnesecca, perhaps more prophetic than even he realized, said it best Friday night.

"When you talk basketball, you have to talk Kentucky," he said. "They've been the Cadillacs of basketball. Now they're the Mercedes Benzes."

Portland State turned several Seattle miscues into baskets in the second half Saturday night to post an 82-76 victory and claim the consolation game of the 25th annual UKIT at Rupp Arena.

Freeman Williams, who scored 39 points against Kentucky in the opening round, added 34 last night to finish with 73 points, second best in tourney history to Bill Bradley's 77 points in 1963.

The winners, now 2-6 on the season, broke away from a 65-65 deadlock on two free throws by Chuck Smith, a foul shot by James Cunningham and a Greg Slider layup to claim 70-65 lead with 7:18 left in the game.

Although Seattle closed to within three points on several occasions, a late Portland State stall sent the Chieftains to their fifth loss in eight outings.

Seven-foot Jawann Oldham paced Seattle with 22 points.

Dwane Casey (#20) shoots

St. Johns coach Lou Carnesecca congratulates Joe Hall on the UKIT championship victory

Leroy Neiman artwork of the game (note the jersey's colors were reversed from the actual game). 300 prints were produced and sold at $800 apiece to support scholarships.

This page was made with a Macintosh
Use the Best, Don't settle for Less