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Barbour to the Rescue!That's no typo! The much maligned ju-co transfer Antwain Barbour scored Kentucky's first 13 points and a career-high 23 for the game in carrying the Cats to victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide. Antwain Barbour came to Kentucky highly-touted, regarded by many as perhaps the number-one junior-college transfer. He bagan last season in Tubby Smith's starting line-up and showed promise early, scoring 13 points in his Wildcat debut against Arizona State. After just three games, Barbour sustained a hand injury that kept him off the floor for the next five games. When he came back, he had lost his starting job to Erik Daniels, and never seemed to recover, finishing the season with a humble 3.4 points per game. This season, Barbour once again found himself out of the starting five. Despite his senior-status, he was replaced by deserving sophomore Kelenna Azubuike. Barbour missed Kentucky's two exhibition games and their first regular-season contest due to an off-season incident involving marijuana. When he re-joined the team, Tubby tried to make Antwain his sixth-man, but he never really flourished in the role. Prior to the Ole-Miss game, Barbour was averaging just 2.7 points per game and made just one of his 13 three-point attempts. Against the Rebels, Barbour seemed to re-awaken, scoring 12 points on a career-high 4 three-pointers. The next game, however, Antwain played only four minutes and failed to score. He found his way back to the court for the next two games and showed that his benching had not diminished his confidence, scoring 8 and 10 in games against Florida and South Carolina, against whom he started due to Gerald Fitch's injury. Those performances were just a warm-up to Tuesday's performance. Despite scoring Kentucky's first four points, Barbour found himself in a familiar position as Tubby benched all five starters with 13:55 remaining in the first half. Though they trailed just 6-4, their play was extremely sloppy as they repeatedly turned the ball over and missed easy shots. Tubby let the starters stew on the bench for the next 2:41, while Alabama's lead grew to 12-4. The players apparently got the message. Behind a renewed defensive intensity and the continued hot-shooting of Barbour, Kentucky made eight of their next 11 shots to take a 25-22 lead with three minutes left in the half. They managed only one more field goal before the horn, however, and led by just one, 27-26 at the break. With 4 minutes elapsed in the second half, Kentucky still led by only two, 32-30. Behind six more points by Barbour, the Cats went on a 13-4 run, to take a commanding 45-34 lead. After Alabama pulled to within 45-36, Kentucky broke the game open with baskets by Cliff Hawkins, Chuck Hayes, Azubuike, and freshman Sheray Thomas. The lead was now 56-39 with seven minutes left, and Kentucky was able to coast to victory for the first time in many weeks.
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