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Kentucky survives Mississippi State in OT for 26th SEC crown

Sun 14th, March 2010

Nashville, TN (Sports Network) - DeMarcus Cousins beat the buzzer to force overtime and John Wall nailed a critical three-pointer late in the extra session, as second-ranked Kentucky edged Mississippi State, 75-74, to claim its record 26th SEC tournament championship.

Eric Bledsoe led all Wildcats (32-2) in scoring with 18 points, while Wall, the tourney's most outstanding player, scored seven of his 17 points in overtime. The sensational Freshman also handed out nine assists, grabbed six rebounds and recorded five steals.

Kentucky made its first appearance in the SEC Final since 2005 and captured its first title in six years.

The victory solidified Kentucky as the East Region's No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament with a first-round tilt against Atlantic Sun champs East Tennessee State.

Ravern Johnson had a game-high 20 points for the Bulldogs (23-11), who took down Tennessee in last year's conference title game but weren't so lucky this season in failing to secure an at-large bid to the "Big Dance."

Jarvis Varnado tallied 18 points, nine rebounds and five blocks in the loss.

"Congratulations to Kentucky. They've shown why they're the best team in the league. They found a way to be the best team today for 45 minutes," said Bulldogs coach Rick Stansbury.

Mississippi State led 64-61 after Barry Stewart made two free throws with 8.2 seconds left in regulation. Stewart then opted to foul Bledsoe, whose first attempt at the line was good. He missed the second one intentionally, leading to a mad scramble for the loose ball.

Wall grabbed the offensive rebound, but was short with a three. However, Cousins managed to secure the ball in the paint and banked it off the glass just before the horn sounded. Replays showed the ball of out his hands with one-tenth of a second on the clock.

"You could tell it was going to be short, so I just grabbed it and tried to put it in quick. I knew it was good, I was looking at the red light," said Cousins of his tying putback.

The lone regular-season meeting between these teams also required overtime.

It remained a one-possession game until Wall knocked down a trey with 26 seconds remaining for a 74-69 Kentucky lead.

A Dee Bost tip-in pulled the Bulldogs to within three, but Cousins made 1-of-2 at the charity stripe to seal the win.

The back-and-forth contest featured 20 lead changes, with the largest lead being five points for each club.

Patrick Patterson had 15 points and six rebounds for Kentucky, which trailed 35-31 at halftime and 59-55 with about four minutes to play in the second half Cousins posted 10 points and 10 boards.

Game Notes

Bost scored 16 points and dished out five assists, while Stewart added 11 with 10 rebounds...UK has a 26-8 record in the conference title game...The Wildcats shot 45.9 percent from the field, but made just 15-of-24 free throws...Mississippi State was 6-of-11 at the foul line and shot 42.0 percent overall.