‘He imposed his will.’ PJ Washington’s return propels UK to Elite Eight.

After leading Kentucky to a 62-58 victory over Houston in the NCAA Tournament on Friday night, PJ Washington met the press around his locker in a most unusual way.

Washington hopped on his right foot, careful to keep his left foot off the floor as he traversed from the trainer’s room to his locker. He estimated the pain as “a 10,” he said. “Adrenaline helped get it to about a two. Right now, it’s back to a 10.”

Washington, who hadn’t played since spraining the foot against Tennessee on March 16, had only practiced about 15 minutes, associate coach Kenny Payne said. Because Washington couldn’t tolerate the pain, he did not go through Kentucky’s pregame shoot-around earlier in the day.

That made his 16-point performance against Houston all the more amazing and memorable.

“He imposed his will,” Payne said. “He’s a winning basketball player who makes big plays. And this team desperately needs him.”

There was doubt Washington would play in this Midwest Region semifinal.

“We didn’t have any intention of playing him tonight until right before the game,” Payne said. “I asked him, ‘Are you ready? Can you go?’”

As Payne told it, Washington replied, “C’mon man, I’m ready to go, K.P.”

Washington credited the setting and what was at stake as the reason he overcame the pain.

“Definitely adrenaline,” he said. “As soon as I saw all the fans and all the lights, I got excited. Just happy to be out there and happy to play with my teammates.”

On Thursday, Calipari had suggested that Washington might play 15 minutes or so. And even that would be a surprise.

Washington played 25 minutes and 43 seconds. The increasing tension of the second half trashed any plan of Washington playing in spurts of three or four minutes.

Payne said trainer Chris Simmons reminded the coaches when Washington’s time was up. Those reminders were ignored in the second half.

Washington played nine seconds short of nine minutes in the first half. He played 16 minutes and 51 seconds in the second, which included the final 11:42.

“They talked about a minutes restriction,” Washington said. “But I knew as soon as I got in the game, that wasn’t happening.”

When asked if he thought he could play Sunday against Auburn in the Midwest Region finals, Washington smiled and said, “Yeah. Of course.”

As the game continued and the score tightened, Washington’s contributions increased. The player who would hop to his locker after the game was everywhere in its final minutes.

Houston, which trailed by 13 points early in the second half, made the final six minutes a possession-by-possession gut-check. More than once, the ball went to Washington. His two free throws with five minutes left gave UK a 49-46 lead. His two free throws with 3:25 left tied it at 51.

The ball going to Washington with the game on the line repeated a familiar theme of UK’s season.

“Coach Cal sees the flow of the game, and we do other things,” Payne said. “And then he says, ‘Look, We got to go back to PJ. We’ve got to go back to Reid (Travis). We’ve got to go to what we are. We are a post-up team, and we’re going to play off those guys.’”

That’s what happened when Corey Davis hit a floater to put Houston ahead 58-55 with 73 seconds left.

Washington posted up for a score. He missed the and-one free throw, then made up for it by — pain or no pain — jumping high to block Davis’ attempt at a driving layup.

“I definitely felt adrenaline on that one,” Washington said.

With the resulting possession, Tyler Herro hit a three-pointer to put Kentucky ahead 60-58. The clock showed 25.8 seconds left.

Two Herro free throws with 13.7 seconds left clinched Kentucky’s victory.

“We need him,” Jemarl Baker said of Washington. “If we didn’t have him, we probably wouldn’t have won the game.”

Payne recoiled when asked how Washington being sidelined would have affected Kentucky.

“I don’t want to even think about playing the game without PJ Washington,” he said. “If PJ doesn’t play, we’re a good team. With PJ Washington, we have the potential to be a great team.”

Calipari told Washington to take Saturday off. The day was to be spent getting treatment.

Travis welcomed the idea of Washington playing for Kentucky on Sunday.

“It’s nice now that we have a complete team,” Travis said. “We’re special when everyone is healthy.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2019 at 2:31 AM.