Kentucky thumps Arkansas to win SEC Tournament

There’s no team in the country better with dribble penetration than Kentucky.

While the Hogs and Pirates have tipped off before, it was only one time in 2010, when Arkansas took down Seton Hall in the Big East Invitational in Louisville, Kentucky.

Coming off an emotional overtime win and playing a third game in less than 48 hours, Vanderbilt ran out of gas in Saturday, falling to Arkansas 76-62 in the SEC Tournament semifinals. The Hogs have a deeper bench as Seton Hall only regularly plays 7 players in their rotation, but both teams will have close to a week off since this game isn’t until Friday, so that may not matter.

With about a minute left and Kentucky leading the Arkansas Razorbacks 77-64, Wildcats point guard De’Aaron Fox floated a pass to Bam Adebayo.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Deonte Burton scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half as No. 23 Iowa State defeated No. 11 West Virginia 80-74 in the Big 12 tournament final on Saturday in front of 18,972 fans at Sprint Center.

But Northern Kentucky is Division I now, and the Norse hope to have destiny on their side with this marquee match-up on a Friday night in Indianapolis – just two hours from Highland Heights – with the all-time winningest NCAA men’s basketball program.

“You just never know”, Willard said.

“I’m going to try to get in here tonight and get some more shots up”.

Despite the flurrying finish, things didn’t come easy for Fox, who committed five turnovers in the first half. “We had a tough second half”.

It was evident Arkansas had a little extra juice right from the opening tip, when a quick outlet pass led to a Barford lay in just four seconds into the game.

Adebayo paced Kentucky with 10 points, Hawkins had nine.

“Sometimes the temperament gets out of hand”, he said.

Calipari lamented that Georgia, the league’s hard-luck team this season, did not get a bid. Freshman Braxton Key, who also reached double figures with 11 points, and junior Riley Norris led the team with six rebounds each. “He was making layups and finishing”.

“It was a little smaller (gathering) as opposed to past year when we won the Big East”, junior guard Khadeen Carrington said.

Redshirt freshman Dazon Ingram led Alabama with 17 points before fouling out of the contest in the final two minutes.

Today, during the selection Sunday presentation, Arkansas was named as an 8 seed in the in the South Region. Seton Hall is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a winning record and 3-0-1 ATS in their last 4 neutral site games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games against the SEC.

“They had a pretty good ending to the first half”, Arkansas coach Mike Anderson said. “We were luck to get out alive”.

The afternoon session begins at 1 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPNU and the evening session follows at 5 p.m. and will be broadcast on SEC Network.