Huskies Win 1st Battle of Blue Bloods

Connecticut 87, Kentucky 83

PHILADELPHIA, March 19 -- Only college basketball romantics dreamed that Sunday's second-round NCAA tournament game between Connecticut and Kentucky would make for riveting entertainment. The teams have nine national championships between them but stunningly had never met on a basketball court.

So it seemed a particular pity that their first clash would come during such an off-year for the Wildcats, who had tumbled from the national rankings, needed an at-large bid to claim a spot in the tournament and arrived at Wachovia Center almost as an afterthought, with a No. 8 seed that was their lowest since 1987.

But after trailing top-seeded Connecticut by double digits much of the afternoon, Kentucky clawed its way back into a game that the Huskies appeared to have well in hand, slicing Connecticut's lead to two with roughly three minutes left. In the end, the Huskies fended off the challenge, drawing once again on the clutch play of junior guard Marcus Williams, to craft a 87-83 victory that sends them into the tournament's round of 16, where they'll face the Huskies of the Pacific-10, fifth-seeded Washington.

Connecticut's closer-than-expected victory before 20,050 surely came as a relief to NCAA officials and CBS broadcasters, who were in danger of losing much of the sizzle from next weekend's Washington Region games at Verizon Center, which had seen its No. 2, 3 and 4 seeds (Tennessee, North Carolina and Illinois, respectively) upset earlier in the tournament.

Coach Jim Calhoun praised Williams, who paced the Huskies with 20 points and eight assists, for his cagey shot distribution and critical baskets down the stretch. Also drawing kudos was former Spalding standout Rudy Gay, who added 19 points, dutifully responding to Calhoun's command to play more assertively (upon threat of being benched) after taking only five shots in Connecticut's first-round victory over Albany.

But Calhoun was most unstinting in his compliments for Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith, a friend of nearly 20 years and, on this day, a formidable first-time adversary.

"I thought we could eventually take control of this game, and Kentucky kept fighting back," Calhoun said. "That was not in the game plan. Credit to Kentucky. Whenever we got that eight- or nine-point lead, Tubby picked it up."

Connecticut boasts one of college basketball's bigger front courts, starting players who stand 6-9, 6-10 and 6-11. But it did little good against Kentucky senior guard Patrick Sparks, who bowed out of his final college game with a team-high 28 points, sinking four three-pointers.

Connecticut out-shot Kentucky 52 percent to 38 percent in the first half and held a 43-31 halftime lead. But Kentucky opened the second period with a seven-point run that had Calhoun bellowing for a timeout.

The score seesawed from there. Each time Kentucky pared Connecticut's lead to single digits, the Huskies went on a scoring spurt, as if insulted by the Wildcats' temerity to get back in the game.

"They've been through an incredibly difficult season and been under incredible pressure," Calhoun said of Kentucky. "I think it has forged a very tough basketball team. But we, in turn, withstood it. I'm so proud of my kids."