Whew!
Davender, Chapman Combine For 53 Points As Usually-Patient Wildcats Outrun Surprising Southern 99-84 To Beat Jaguars At Their Own Game
By TCP Columnist Mike Estep
CINCINNATI  "Gentlemen, start your engines!"
With green flag in hand, that's the way the Riverfront Coliseum public address announcer should have opened the Kentucky-Southern University game last Friday night.
It was 40 minutes of run-and-gun, fastbreak basketball, a game that wasn't decided until Kentucky's superior talent took over in the last stretch to take the checkered flag with a 99-84 win.
The usually-patient Wildcats put five men in double figures, led by Ed Davender and Rex Chapman with 30 and 23 points, respectively, to beat Southernwhose motto is the only bad shot is one that isn't put up fast enoughat its own game.
Kentucky controlled the opening tip and guard Ed Davender rushed down and swished a 20-footer to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead just 10 seconds into the game. From that point on, it was stand clear and watch out.
"We couldn't gear it back," Sutton said afterwards. "We didn't go back to second, much less first. We were still in third, sometimes fourth and fifth. If you had put it in reverse, you definitely would've lost your transmission. I haven't been involved in a game like that in a long, long time."
Hank Iba, who schooled Sutton in UK's normal deliberate, defensive gameplan designed to keep the score in the 60s or 70s, would have been apalled.
Shot Clock? You Mean There's A Shot Clock?
Forget the seven-pass rule, instituted by Sutton at various times this season in an attempt to slow his ballclub down. This game, it was more like a seven-second rule: Hold the ball for seven seconds, then jack that sucker up.
Southern assaulted the basket 82 times during the contest, and when it was over, coach Ben Jobe was asked what he would do differently.
"Get more shots," he said. "Definitely get more shots." Kentucky got off only 57 shots, but even that was too many for Sutton. =
"They got us out of sync," Sutton said, "they got us in their game. We don't play basketball like that. But it could happen to anybody. You gonna turn down four-footers? We scored a lot of points."
And gave up a lot of points. The 84 scored by the Jaguars represents the highest point total of any UK opponent this season, even in the Wildcats' five losses.
"They're the quickest basketball team we've played all year," Sutton said. "They make you look bad. The quick break, they're quick jumpers. There were two things I said would be the most important things for us to win: That was minimize turnovers and don't give up too many second shots. Well somehow we survived. We had 25 miscues, and we gave up 20 offensive rebounds. Had we not shot the ball 67 percent and done some other things decent, I guess we wouldn't have won.
"But I certainly want to give their ballclub a lot of credit. They play hard. They're quick. Their traps are good, their press is excellent. And they certainly hung with us for a long time."
Southern Hung In There For 25 Minutes. . .
Kentucky was in control early, taking a nine-point lead eight minutes into the game. The Wildcats led by eight at the break and pushed the advantage to 10, at 62-52, with 14:42 remaining in the ballgame. But Southern put together one last run, outscoring the 'Cats 8-2 over the next three minutes to cut the margin to four at 64-60, and put a scare into the Southeast Region's second-seeded team.
"The main thing was we had to pull together as a ballclub and try to do the things that we'd done all season," Winston Bennett said the team's feeling was when Southern closed the gap to four. "And that was to play good, hard-nosed defense, which has basically been our offense up to this point. And we weren't doing a good job of that."
Bennett said it was a case of the Wildcats not being mentally ready to play the smaller, unheralded Jaguars.
"On a scale of 10, about a four," Bennett replied when asked to rate the performance. "We're happy we won, we're just not happy with the way we won.
"I think it was basically a matter of us not being mentally prepared to play. Southern's biggest man was something like 6-6 or 6-7, and you have a tendency not to respect a ballclub like that."
The Jaguar gameplan was simple: Let the guards shoot until their arms get sore, and in the meantime, the big men will chase down the rebounds. Guards Dervynn Johnson (two for 12) and Patrick Garner (three for 17) couldn't have hit the nearby Ohio River, as the two combined to convert just five of 32 field goals. But SbuiBerrfs inside people6-5 Kevin Florent, 6-6 Daryl Battles and
6-7 Rod Washingtonconsistenly outquicked Kentucky on the boards. Battles had five offensive rebounds and 20 points. Florent three boards and 25 points and Washington three rebounds and 14 points.
. . .But Wildcat Depth Proved To Be Too Much
But after seeing the margin trimmed to 64-60, the 'Cats survived, as Bennett Chapman and Davender teamed for 23 points the rest of the way, and the Jaguars, with only seven players seeing significant playing time, tired in the final 10 minutes.
"We have the belief that we're in better condition than most of our opponents, and each year we usually win three or four games because we're in better condition than our opponents," Southern coach Ben Jobe said. "But they've got so much power, and so much depth. Even some of their big kids, they're not very offensive minded, but they're in there, they're in the way. And they can give some of the kids some rest time.
"I don't usually feel bad when we're beaten by a club that good, as long as we can get decent shots and get the score somewhere up in the 90s. We got close to the 90s, but we didn't quite get far enough. They're a very strong club, they've got a lot of power-inside and outside."
It's become customary in the last few weeks for the opposing coach to tout the Wildcats for the national championship following a loss: Dale Brown of LSU and Hugh Durham of Georgia did so during the SEC tournament. Now Jobe is jumping on the Kentucky bandwagon.
"They're just a great club, they're well coached," Jobe said. "There's not reason why they can't make it to the Final Four and possibly win the whole thing. They're very good. They're the best club we've played the two years I've been at Southern."
Jobe said that includes top-ranked Temple, which forced the Jaguars to shoot a horrendous 19.2 percent from the field in a 84-47 Owl victory earlier this year.
"They have more firepower than Temple," he said, "and they're just as physical. They're a lot tougher ballclub. I think they could beat Temple.
"That depth is really fantastic. That's what would hurt a team like Temple. (Temple coach John Chaney) plays about six or seven people, about like we do. These guys look they could play nine, 10 guys, maybe 11. So that would hurt a team like Temple. So if it came down between them and the No. 1 team, I would put my money on Kentucky."
UK-Southern Play-By-Play
Time	Kentucky Score		Southern
19:50	Davender 20 (t.	3-0	
19:02	Davender layup	5-0	
18:30		5-2	Florent dunk
17:08	Lock FT, FT	7-2	
16:44		7-5	D. Johnson 22 ft.
16:02	Chapman layup, FT	10-5	
15:27		10-6	Florent FT, FTA
15:19	Davender layup	12-6	
14:5!	Bennett 18 ft.	14-6	
14:18		14-8	Florent 6 ft.
13:09	Chapman dunk	16-8	
13:05		16-10	Florent layup
12:55	Ellis alley-oop dunk	18-10	
12:43		18-13	Garner 20 ft.
12:30	Chapman 12 it.	20-13	
12:11	Chapman dunk	22-13	
12:00		22-15	Washington FT, FT
11:24		22-18	Florent 21 ft.
11:11	Flits alley-oop layup	24-15	
11:02		24-20	Washington FT, FT
10:15	Davender 21 ft.	27-20	
8:28		27-22	Garner 17 ft.
8:14	Davender FT, FT	29-22	
7:18	Bennett FT, FTA	30-22	
6:10		30-24	Battles dunk
6:05	Chapman 18 tt.	32-24	
5:58		32-26	Battles layup
5:46	Manuel FT, FTA	33-26	
5:24		St-28	Battles follow layup
5:15	Chapman dunk	35-28	
4:59		35-30	Battles tollow layup
4:47	Manuel FT, FT	37-30	
3:51		37-32	Washington follow
3:00		37-34	Battles FT, FT
2:53	Manuel 12 ft.	39-34	
2:25	Davender 18 ft.	41-34	
2:02	Manuel 17 tt.	43-34	
1:36	Davender 4 ft.	45-34!	
1:18		45-36	Washington FT, FT
1:09	Jenkins 4 ft., FT	48-36	
1:01		48-38	Sample 14 ft.
0:07	148-40		A. Johnson layup
HALF		48-40	
18:30		48-42	Florent 8 ft.
18:04	Lock FT, FT	50-42	
17:45		50-44	D. Johnson 18 ft.
17:18	Chapman dunk	52-44	
16:49	Bennett 10 ft.	54-44	
16:14		54-46	Battles follow layup
16:11	Davender 4 ft.	56-46	
16:05		56-48	Washington 6 ft.
15:58	Davender 6 ft.	58-48	
15:54		58-50	Battles B ft.
15:46	Lock FT, FT	60-50	
14:49		60-52	Samples follow layup
14:42	Chapman 6 ft.	62-52	
14:37	].:--   : 	62-54	Battles 8 ft.
14:05		62-56	Samples follow layup
13:40	Bennett 8 ft.	64-56	
12:51		64-58	Samples FT, FT
11:37		64-60	Washington layup
11:30	Lock 5 ft., FT	67-60	
10:57	Ellis follow layup	69-60	
10:31	Davender layup	71-60	
10:09	Bennett 6 ft.	73-60	
9:17	Davender 13 ft.	75-6C	
9:01		75-62	Washington 4 ft.
8:46	Chapman 21 ft.	78-62	
8:30	Davender layup	80-62	
8:02		80-64	Florent 15 ft.
7:10	Chapman 21 ft.	83-64	
6:52		83-66	Florent dunk
6:4C		83-69	Garner 21 ft.
6:0C		83-71	Florent follow layup
5:33	Bennett 4 ft., FT	86-71	
5:15	Davender 4 ft.	88-71	
4:4S		88-72	Florent FTA, FT
4:12	Manuel layup	90-72	
4:0f		90-74	Battles dunk
3:25	Madison dunk	92-74	
2:41	Davender FT, FT	94-74	
2:3.1		94-76	Battles follow layup
1:53	Lock 3 ft.	96-76	
1:41		96-7S	Florent 23 ft.
1:11		96-8i	Florent 21 ft.
0:42		96-8'	Phills 1-1 tt.
0:01	Lock FTA, FT	97-84	
0:01	n Manuel dunk	99-8'	
FINAL		99-84	
-Cats' fivw chart