PAGE 7    THE CATS'  PAUSE,  DECEMBER lk, \377
Mike Phillips Scores 22
Phillips Named MVP As Cats Regain UKIT Title, 102 - 72
With Mike Phillips playing perhaps his finest game in two years, Kentucky's Wildcats became the awesome team many have expected in rolling over highly regarded St. John's 102-72 to regain the UKIT title the Cats lost a year ago.
Phillips, one of Kentucky's twin 6-10 giants, poured in 20 points and gathered eight rebounds in leading a balanced scoring attack which featured five double-figure scorers and a torrid 53.7 shooting percentage from the field.
The outstanding play caused coach Joe B. Hall to admit his Cats "are now out of my doghouse."
Although undefeated at 5-0 entering the game, Kentucky had not played anywhere near its potential in the previous five games. Hall earlier in the week said he didn't like what he had been seeing from the bench.
But all that changed against the Redmen from the East. The passing was crispt and unselfish, the shooting phenomenal, the rebounding awesome and_ the defense sticky. Add it all up, and Kentucky breezed to a thirty-point victory.
Playing before a packed house of 23,472 for the second straight night and the fifth time in as many tries this season at home, the Cats raced out to an early 6-0 lead and the Redmen made only a couple of minor runs at the Cats.
Phillips, for his outstanding play which included a slam dunk that brought the roaring crowd to its feet and some of his best one-on-one work since he arrived at Kentucky, was voted the classic's Most Valuable Player by the media representatives.
Two other Kentuckians joined Phillips on the All-Tournament team. Junior guard Truman Claytor and senior Jack Givens were also accorded the honor. Rounding out the five-man squad were Freeman Williams of Portland State and George Johnson of St. John's.
Ironically, neither Phillips nor Clay-tor played in last year's UKIT because both were serving out a two-game suspension meted to them and Jay Shidler for breaking curfew earlier in that week.
Kentucky lost to Utah in the finals a year ago on a last second shot.
After the game, both Phillips and Claytor admitted this UKIT was something special to both, especially after last year's event.
The Wildcats exploded early, firing a sizzling 61.3 percent from the field in the opening twenty minutes as they opened up a 46-28 halftime lead as Kyle Macy, Claytor and Phillips broke the double-figure barrier with 12, 10 and 10 points, respectively.
St. John's fought back briefly late in
the first half and sliced what had been a 10-point deficit to four points at 26-22 when Johnson hit a six-footer from the side. That was with 6:07 left in the half.
Then Kentucky's defense went to work. The wildcats limited the Red-men to a mere six points the final six minutes and the Wildcats blazed away at the other end, lay-up after lay-up with some of Kyle Macy's 20-footers spiced in for good measure.
Macy was a house afire near the end of the half and personally accounted for eight consecutive points as the Cats broke the game wide open.
As has been the situation in several games this year, Kentucky left no doubt in anyone's mind with the first
five minutes of play in the second half.
The Cats came out of the locker room and outscored the Redmen 24-6 during the first 6:41 of the second half, and it was all over.
Kentucky again cleared its bench early and every Kentucky player ghot at least five minutes of action.
"This team is awesome," said St. John's coach Lous Carnesecca. "They were a tremendous team tonight. They are very, very good."
While Kentucky was getting a balanced scoring attack, St John's likewise got a balanced attack from its team, but just couldn't match up with the bigger Wildcats on a hotter night.
John led the losing cause with 17 points followed by freshman Wayne
McKoy (a rookie recruited by Kentucky at one time) and Bernard Rencher with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Gordon Thomas and Tom Calabrese scored 10 points each.
Phillips was the big gun all the way for the Cats.
"I figured I owed 'em one for last year, and this partially makes up for it," said Phillips in reference to last year's absence from the UKIT.
.Mike also admitted the MVP honor will be a big boost to him, personally.
' 'This couldn't have come at a better time," said Phillips. "I was kind of getting down on myself and winning this award really gives me a good feeling. It's good to see the team come out of its slump tonight."
Behind Phillips in scoring were Macy and Claytor with 16 points each followed by reserve James Lee who drove home 12 in a fine performance with seven rebounds.
Kentucky's two leading scorers on the season were below par as Rick Robey scored only 10 points (but had eight rebounds) and Jack Givens tallied only 8 points (with seven rebounds).
Robey has been suffering from an unknown illness for the past three weeks and Hall said the big 6-10 senior from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, would be visiting the doctors early in the week for another check-up. He played 25 minutes but tired easily.
Givens played 27 minutes and hit 3 of 7 from the field, but his patented jumpers just weren't needed with the other Wildcats being so hot.
Kentucky won the game just about any way you look at it. The Wildcats shot 53.7 percent to 38.4 percent for the Redmen, outrebounded the visitors from New York 46-34 and hit, believe this, 90.9 from the free throw line on 30 of 33 attempts. St John's connected for 66.7 percent on 16 of 24.
Kentucky was credited with dishing out 19 assists to 15 for St. John's, and the Wildcats committed one less turnover than the visitors, 18 to 19.
Phillips and Macy led the Cats in assists with five each. Phillips' exhibition was a thing of beauty and it came in only 22 minutes of playing time. Likewise, Lee contributed his 12 points and seven rebounds in only 18 minutes of playing time.
Chuck Aleksinas had another good night, scoring 8 points and grabbing four rebounds in IS minutes. UK coaches feel the big man is right on target for his role to step in as a starter next season when Robey and Phillips depart.
But there's a lot of basketball before that happens, maybe even the most exciting moment in UK basketball. There's a lot of collegiate basketball on tap for the next three months.
	ST. JOHN'S			-72				
PLAYER	FG	FT	REB	PF	TPS	A	TO	MIN
K. Winfree	2-10	1-2	4	4	5	1	4	25
G . Johnson	7-15	3-3	9	5	17	1	5	26
W. McKoy	6-15	1-5	4	4	13	0	1	25
T. Calabrese	4-7	2-2	4	3	10	5	3	35
B. Rencher	4-9	k-k	2	2	12	6	2	26
R. Plair	o-i	0-0	2	1	0	0	1	5
G. Thomas	3-7	4-5	0	3	10	1	0	19
F . Gilroy	2-3	0-1	1	0	4	0	1	4
R. Wright	0-2	1-2	1	2	1	1	2	20
P. Berwanger	o-4	o-o	3	0	0	0	0	15
Team Rebounds			4					
TOTALS	28-73	16-24	34	24	72	15	19	200
KENTUCKY102								
PLAYER	FG	FT	REB	PF	TPS	A.	TO	MIN
J . G i vens	3-7	2-2	7	2	8	2	3	27
R. Robey	]-k	8-8	8	1	10	2	1	25
M. Phi 11i ps	10-14	0-0	8	4	20	5	3	22
K. Macy	5-9	6-6	3	2	16	5	1	31
T. Claytor	7-10	2-2	0	1	16	2	1	27
D . Casey	0-2	2-2	0	1	2	0	1	8
J. Shidler	2-2	o-o	1	1	4	1	2	9
T. Stephens	0-1	0-1	2	1	0	2	1	5
J. Lee	5-9	2-4	7	3	12	0	3	18
F. Cowan	1-3	2-2	2	1	4	0	0	6
C . A1eks i nas	2-5	4-4	4	4	8	0	2	13
L. Willi ams	0-1	2-2	2	3	2	0	0	9
Team Rebounds			2					
TOTALS	36-67	30-33	46	24	102	19	18	200
ST. JOHNS UNIVERSITY			28		44	-	--	72
UNIVERSITY OF	KENTUCKY		46		56			102
Officials:    Julius Sneec		and	Ben	Dunn				
Attendance:	23,472 (Rupp Arena Capacity)