Wichita State Finally Loses; Kentucky Advances To Sweet 16

wichita_kentucky

This will be a tough game to top. Kentucky beat the No. 1 seed and previously undefeated Wichita State Shockers 78-76. It was an offensive showcase—especially for Wichita State's Cleanthony Early who had 31 points and one thunderous dunk—and both teams exchanged leads for most of the second half.

In the span of a two representative minutes of the entire second half, Early hit a layup, Kentucky's Andrew Harrison hit a three, Ron Baker responded with a three, Harrison a layup and then Early hit another three. Just pure offense. And we also had some power.

When it got down to the nitty gritty, Baker hit another three, an absurd bank-shot to bring Wichita within one, with 30 seconds left. He'd later miss badly trying to tie it at 77 with 10 seconds.

Wichita St. was then forced to foul and Kentucky missed the back end of two, allowing the Shockers to draw up a final play to tie or win the game with 3.2 seconds. It was a straight away three-pointer from Fred Van Vleet. It was a brick and a totally incongruous ending to an offensive festival.

[CBS]