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15 feet on the left baseline he confidently guided the ball toward the cylinder. It bounced nd spun like it was coming out. Somehow, though, it trickled in. "1 had a feeling that it was going down," Madison said with a grin when asked if he thought it was in all the way. "I had no doubt."
After Ole Miss failed to convert on the other end it was showtime for the more than 1,500 Wildcat supporters on hand.
Walker spotted a breaking Madison with only one defender to beat. No. 42 took the pass, leaped just past the free throw line, and shook the rim with a fierce dunk. The goal, giving UK a 56-48 lead at the 5:28 mark, brought the Kentucky supporters off their feet. The bucket was also a signal for Hunt and his boys to talk things over.
UM had many opportunites in the final five-plus minutes but could get no closer than four. Both Walker and Bennett each had four fouls with 4:20 remaining, but the Rebels failed to take advantage.
The biggest blunder, however, was when Ritchwood missed the front end of two, one-and-one situations. UK tried its best, as well, to please the hosts. With Kentucky ahead 58-52, Bennett missed the front end of the bonus. And with the Wildcats holding on to a 58-54 score, Davender misfired on the front end with only 31 seconds left.
Smith, however missed and UK iced the game with Harden's two free throws.
Wildcat-Rebel Tidbits
With the 62-58 victory, Kentucky now owns a 68-5 win-loss record against the Rebels. The last time Ole Miss defeated the Wildcats was in 1983 with a 67-65 win at Tad Smith Coliseum. . .UK upped its record in the coliseum to 18-3 against UM. . .Eleven buses from western Kentucky made the trip South to see their 'Cats play. Included in that group were seven buses (47 seats) from Paduach. . .At Kentucky's shooting practice that morning more than 100 Wildcat fans showed up to watch. Sutton responded to the crowd by letting the team sign autographs afterwards. . Junior College transfer Eric Smith lists two sites (Champaign and Urbana. 111.) as his hometown. His reason?  Smith's front yard is in Champaign while his house is in Urbana. With 13 points Smith has now hit for double figures in 20 of 21 games this season. . .Falling to 10-11, Ole Miss is currently only one of two SEC teams with overall records below .500 Mississippi State owns a disappointing 4-17 record.
Harden Hounding Keith Kessinger
. Roger Harden's six assists give him a season total of 157, just 31 short of the UK record. . .It's interesting to note that the University of Kentucky's enrollment is listed at 23,000 while the University of Mississippi's is 10,452. . The Sunday after his team defeated Ole Miss, Eddie Sutton was probably one of the proudest coaches in the nation. Not only had his Wildcats obtained their 20th victory, but two former guards he coached at Arkansas  Sidney Moncrief (playing for the East) and Alvin Robertson (West)  were to be in the starting lineups in the NBAs 36th annual All-Star game at Dallas. Moncrief heads the show for the Milwaukee Bucks while Robertson stars for the San Antonio Spurs. Both players are noted for their outstanding defensive and hustling abilities. Moncrief finished the game with 16 points while Robertson added four. The East defeated the West 139-132.
Following 62-58 Setback
Hunt Calls UK Defense
One Of The Best He's Seen
following are Lee Hunt'spostgame comments after the Wildcats held off the Ole Miss Rebels, 62-58:
Question: Your comments on the game?
Hunt: You can see why Kentucky leads the Southeastern Conference. They are a very good basketball team. They are very patient, and they made our defense work very hard until they got the shot they wanted; many times they hit it. It boils down, in our situation, to a problem that we've had for two years  free throw shooting.
as any team could possibly play it. I've been in the game a long, long time and I've observed a lot of great teams and a lot of pressure defenses, but I really do believe that the Kentucky defense is one of the finest man-to-man defenses teams I've seen in a long, long time. They put tremendous pressure on you. You (also) have to work extremely hard without the ball to get open. They recover so well in their defense. They're just an outstanding club on the defensive end. It's very difficult to get the ball inside. . .they really cover you up down inside.
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In a game like tonight, where you're playing a top ballclub like Kentucky, it's so important to give yourself a chance to win the game that you have to convert your free throws. You just have to. We shot 63 percent from the line: amd we had a number of free throws in the second half that could have really made a difference in the game. We had one player (Curtis Ritchwood), if he had been hitting them could have put us in a great position maybe to move on and win the ballgame. I was proud of our players. I think they played extremely hard and they gave a great effort. We did about as good a job as you can do on Kenny Walker  he had 15 points for the night. Just to hold him to 15 shots, you know that your defense has worked hard. I was pleased that we outrebounded Kentucky  36-31. That's another indicator that your team put a in great effort  in the rebounding area. We hit a critical point in the second half where we did not score. We had a golden opportunity and did not hit any shots. Kentucky deserves a lot of credit; they are an outstanding man-to-man defensive team. They play the man-to-man defense about as well
Kentucky fronts everything inside and gets good weak-side help. When you try to clear out and create something they're always rotating their defenses.
Question: At one point you outscored UK 8-0. Minutes later Kentucky proceeded to score 13 unanswered points. What happened?
Hunt: I very well remember that. We really were playing well. Kentucky, during one of the timeouts, really extended their defense after that. They were playing what you call 'medium pressure defense' - extending their defense. We had a difficult time running any type of offense during that critical period in the first half. We called a timeout to make an offensive adjustment to get 'better' shots. During that period they forced us out of anything that had been working. So, we had to change. Though we did get back a little bit just before the half, we did have that stretch where we didn't score. Again, credit goes to the Kentucky defense because they really extended and turned their defense on at that point.
Barnes Connected On 7 Of 15 Field GoalsJ