30th SEC tourney title: No. 8 Kentucky beats Arkansas 82-65

“I’m just getting confident”, said Fox, who is averaging 20 points per game over his past four contests. “With (Yante) Maten out, they still won”. A win would have guaranteed Arkansas finishing the season with single-digit losses for only the second time in 19 years no matter what happens in the NCAA Tournament.

The Arkansas Razorbacks are coming from a 76-62 win over Vanderbilt Commodores in which Jaylen Barford scored 18 points in 8-for-17 from the field.

The margin of victory for the Cats began taking shape at an unlikely time in which both Malik Monk and eventual tournament MVP De’Aaron Fox on the bench.

“It’s tough to lose a game like that – we fought hard, we felt like we put ourselves in a position to be successful”, Collins said. “They were just another level faster in everything tonight”.

We got a lot of confidence and we’re not too much anxious about what Kentucky is doing. “That was the emphasis all week in practice”.

“We’re playing defense. I think that’s the first and most important thing”. The big spurt came as Kentucky scored 13 straight points to end the first half and into the opening minute of the second that turned a three-point lead to a 46-30 edge.

The ball pressure Hawkins applied, and that Kentucky applied as a team, is something different from what it has shown for much of this season, and in fact better than most teams in the nation can muster. It committed 15 turnovers, Isaiah Briscoe struggled offensively and the team shot 6-for-16 from 3-point range. “It’s awesome whenever you get to be a part of it. We’re pretty locked in”.

Colorado State finished the season 23-11, but was runner-up to Nevada for the regular-season and tournament titles in a conference that is not particularly strong. Monk couldn’t recall the last time he scored two points or less but liked the final result.

“The ball didn’t go in the basket – just one of those nights”, Key said.

Kentucky Coach John Calipari said it was “really special” that Monk went to the arena early Saturday to do extra shooting with teammate Wenyen Gabriel and one of the Wildcats’ assistant coaches.

The Crimson Tide held their own against the Wildcats, but fell short with a 79-74 loss, dropping to 19-14.

Vanderbilt shot 30.4 percent (17 of 56) from the field and was 8 of 31 on three-pointers. “We are playing really good basketball right now and we’re ready to face anybody in the country, so it should be a great challenge tomorrow”. We were able to execute.

“But we’re continuing to progress … you can see us going somewhere with the program”. “Did everything a little bit better than us”.

Gametracker: Kentucky vs. South Carolina-Alabama victor, 1 p.m., Saturday.