Kentucky Overcomes Late Deficit to KO Notre Dame, Advance to Final Four
Published at(CLEVELAND) — The luck of the Irish ran out.
Leading most of the second half, No. 3 Notre Dame slowly watched top-ranked Kentucky come back and eventually take the lead for good when Andrew Harrison made two free throws with six seconds remaining, as the Wildcats edge the Fighting Irish 68-66 to advance to the Final Four of the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.
Kentucky (38-0) gets to continue its undefeated season with large thanks to the Harrison twins. Aaron Harrison made an NBA range 3-pointer with 3:18 remaining to give Kentucky its first lead since the 15:06 mark of the second half. Notre Dame’s Jerian Grant answered Harrison’s three with one of his own with 2:36 remaining to put Notre Dame up by two. Karl-Anthony Towns then scored two of his game-high 25 points to tie the contest before the other Harrison hit his free throws to seal the game.
Notre Dame (32-6), which had a decided size disadvantage with the Cats, was only outrebounded by one in the loss. It also doubled Kentucky 16-8 in assists.
Zach Auguste scored 20 while Steve Vasturia and Grant added 16 and 15 points respectively in a losing effort.
Kentucky advances to the National Semifinal in Indianapolis next weekend where it will meet Wisconsin.
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