Wall’s 23 lift No. 5 Kentucky in OT
November 25, 2009
CANCUN, Mexico (AP)—Freshman sensation John Wall scored a season-best 23points, including clutch shots in the final minute that sent the game toovertime, and No. 5 Kentucky closed with an eight-point run for a 73-65 victoryover gritty Stanford on Wednesday night in the championship game of the CancunChallenge at the Moon Palace Resort.
Playing his fifth college game, Wall capped a big night with a slam dunk atthe final horn, setting off a wild celebration by Kentucky players before acrowd of 1,425.
Wall hit a 12-foot fadeaway jumper from the right wing to tie the score at61 with 30.6 seconds remaining in regulation, then two free throws with 2.4seconds left to send the game to overtime.
Fellow freshman Eric Bledsoe made an NBA-length 3-pointer with 33 seconds togo that gave Kentucky a 69-65 lead it did not relinquish.
Stanford’s Landry Fields was fouled by Ramon Harris during a scramble andhit both ends of a 1-and-1 to give Stanford a 63-61 lead with 28.2 seconds onthe clock.
The Wildcats opted not to call a timeout and went to freshman forwardDeMarcus Cousins, who was fouled on the block. The 53.6 percent free throwshooter missed the first free throw and then the second on purpose, but fouledStanford’s Jarrett Mann on the rebound.
Mann, a 53 percent free throw shooter, then missed both of his free-throwattempts, setting up a final flurry. Wall drew a blocking call on AndrewZimmermann with 2.4 seconds left and calmly swished both free throws to tie itagain.
Stanford’s full-court pass was batted off the backboard by Patrick Pattersonand corralled by Wall to send the game to overtime.
The game was marked by several long stoppages in play. Officials spentseveral minutes reviewing a Stanford 3-pointer and intentional foul in the firsthalf, then a shot clock malfunction had tournament organizers searching for aladder with 11:31 left in regulation.
Fields put the Cardinal on his back late in the first half, scoring sixstraight points during a late run that gave Stanford a 38-32 lead at halftime.Aided by Jeremy Green’s four 3-pointers, the duo tallied 27 of Stanford’s 38points and helped hold Kentucky’s up-tempo offense scoreless over the final5:09.
On the other side, Wall was the only Kentucky player to get going before thebreak. The freshman had 15 points but could not do all the heavy lifting withpreseason All-American forward Patterson going out of the game less than sixminutes in with two fouls. Without Patterson’s inside presence the Wildcatsstruggled to get anything in the paint and shot just 35.5 percent from thefield.
Patterson got going early in the second half on his way to his 25th careerdouble-double, but he missed two point-blank opportunities on the samepossession that would have given Kentucky its first lead since late in the firsthalf with just over 10 minutes remaining.
He made up for it later, using a power post move to give Kentucky a 54-53lead with 6:42 to play.
It was only the third meeting between the schools and first since the 1998NCAA tournament semifinals. Kentucky won that showdown 86-85 in overtime on itsway to its seventh—and most recent—national championship.
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