Indiana ends Kentucky’s season 73-67

Kentucky’s season of adaptation and adjustment, of dependence on Tyler Ulis and Jamal Murray, came to a fitting conclusion Saturday.

Except for the final score.

A 73-67 loss to Indiana in the second round of the NCAA Tournament mirrored UK’s season. But this time willpower and effort from the Ulis-Murray tandem could not overcome the lack of a post presence.

Kentucky could not be charged with not trying to post up the Hoosiers. That was high on UK’s priority list, as evidenced by going to Alex Poythress repeatedly early, then trying freshman Skal Labissiere and finally Marcus Lee.

“I thought they’d have a hard time matching up with us,” Derek Willis said. “I thought Alex would kill that guy.”

That guy was Collin Hartman, a 6-foot-7 junior.

“Teams have been doing that all year,” Hartman said. Of Kentucky’s efforts, he smiled and said, “They only got one (basket on me), though.”

UK’s “bigs” made five of 16 shots and combined for 14 points (or five less than Indiana center Thomas Bryant, who scored 17 of his 19 points in the final 9:20).

“I’m pretty shocked,” Labissiere said in a postgame locker room filled with bewilderment. “I feel we could have done better. We could have won the game.”

When asked about the importance of establishing a post game, Labissiere said, “Very important. I knew they really counted on me to score on the block.”

Marcus Lee echoed the sentiment.

“It was huge for us to establish a post game today,” he said. “We tried to get it done as much as possible.”

From Selection Sunday forward, the Big Blue Nation made no secret of its trepidation about a second-round game against one-time-rival Indiana.

That kind of blue-blooded matchup deserved to be in the Sweet 16 or some later time in a NCAA Tournament. That uneasy feeling was justified.

Indiana advanced to a Sweet 16 game against the North Carolina-Providence winner in Philadelphia.

Kentucky saw a season of achievement built on patchwork fixes and three star guards end with a 27-9 record.

Tyler Ulis went out with a gutty and competitive performance. He led Kentucky with 27 points. Jamal Murray added 16. They just didn’t get much help.

“At one point, we just looked at each other and said, ‘We’ve got to make things happen,’” Ulis said. “ ... We talked about it before the game. We talked about it during the game. We tried.”

Ulis and Murray weren’t helped by Willis’ ineffectiveness. The player celebrated for giving Kentucky a much-needed third scoring option missed his only two shots and his one free throw.

The first half suggested this would be a radical departure for both teams from first-round games on Thursday. Instead of blowouts (UK over Stony Brook and IU over Chattanooga), the opening 20 minutes suggested a grinding competition to the final buzzer.

Kentucky’s two seven-point leads were the biggest margins either team enjoyed in the first half. Indiana closed with an 11-5 run in the final four minutes-plus to lead 33-32 at the break.

It was only the sixth time all season Kentucky trailed at halftime. Coincidentally, it was the third time in the last four games that the Cats trailed. UK won the two earlier times: against Georgia and Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament. UK ended up with a 2-4 record in games it trailed at halftime.

Indiana got the best of it early in the second half. Kentucky tried again to establish a post game on its first three possessions. The result was a walk by Poythress and two misses by Labissiere.

During this time, Indiana built its largest lead, 38-32.

A UK timeout with 18:31 left apparently was not designed to call a play. Murray bailed out the Cats with a long three-pointer that beat the shot clock.

Murray matched his five first-half points barely five minutes into the second half. His fourth and fifth points of the second half gave Kentucky a 42-40 lead with 14:55 left.

The teams traded the lead five times in the next six minutes.

Indiana matched its largest lead when OG Anunoby hit a three-pointer in transition. That put the Hoosiers ahead 56-50 with 6:57 left. IU had made only five of 19 three-point shots until that point.

UK called time to ponder. The timeout didn’t help.

Murray missed a three from the left corner set up by an inbounds play. Then he was called for charging into Williams. It was Murray’s third foul. Instead of protesting, Calipari clapped encouragement, but not with much enthusiasm.

Indiana expanded its lead to as much as 62-52 with 4:10 left.

Kentucky did not quit. Indiana helped a UK comeback by making only three of six free-throw attempts and committing two fouls in a 46-second span in the final minute.

Bryant thensealed Indiana’s victory with two free throws with 10.4 seconds left.

This story was originally published March 19, 2016 at 7:48 PM with the headline "Indiana ends Kentucky’s season 73-67."