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Cats Need OT to Defeat UTOnce again, the Cats let a big lead slip away, but held on for their 12th victory of the season. Kentucky was led by an outstanding performance by Chuck Hayes - 18 points and 16 rebounds. But it was the clutch shooting of Cliff Hawkins that rescued the 8th ranked Wildcats from their second straight loss. After one half of action, the Cats led 41-28, and had led by as many as 16. The first three minutes of the second half began with Kentucky expanding their lead to 17 at 47-30, but a 9-0 run by Tennessee made the score 47-39. After Tubby Smith called a time-out, the Cats, led by Hawkins, came storming back scoring the next four points on an alley-oop from Hawkins to Kelenna Azubuike and a lay-up by Hawkins. The lead was back to 12, but then the parade to the free-throw line began. Over the next 4 minutes, Tennessee put together a 15-2 run, on the strength of 9 made free-throws. Major Wingates jumper finished the run, giving the Vols their first lead at 54-53 with 7 minutes remaining. Kentucky responding, scoring on their next five possessions, and led 63-58 with four minutes to go. Their next three trips down, however, resulted in zero points, and Tennessee regained the lead, 64-61, on four free-throws and C.J. Watson's only bucket of the game. With 22 seconds remaining, Cliff Hawkins brought the ball across half-court, stepped behind a screen at the top of the key, and calmly drained a three-pointer from a good three feet beyond the line. Tennessee tried desparately to get Scooter McFadgon to the line as time expired, but his shot clanked off the rim, and for seemingly the first time since half-time, Scooter had missed a shot without the refs blowing the whistle! Overtime! In OT, the Vols struck first on a jumper by McFadgon. Kentucky came charging right back, taking a one-point lead 67-66 on a three-pointer by Erik Daniels. Tennessee went back to play #1 - a pair of free throws by Scooter, to retake the lead 68-67. Those free-throws brought Tennessee's total to 22 of 23 since halftime, while Kentucky was just 4 of 6 in the same span. In fact, the Cats never even got into the bonus, as Tennessee was whistled for only 5 fouls in the first half, and ZERO in the overtime period. Nonetheless, Chuck Hayes tipped in his own miss with 3:47 remaining, and that turned out to be the game-winner as neither team managed a single point the rest of the way. Let's take a look at the Good and the Bad from Tuesday Night's game: GOOD
BAD
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