Kentucky Wildcats hold on to beat Georgia Bulldogs

ATHENS, Ga. — Kentucky remained in a first-place tie with Florida in the SEC with a thrilling 82-77 victory at Georgia on Saturday that featured 13 ties and 15 lead changes.

The No. 13 Wildcats (22-5, 12-2 SEC) won the game in part by hitting 17 straight free throws down the stretch. Eight of those were by freshman point guard De’Aaron Fox, who scored 10 of Kentucky’s final 13 points over the final 2:07.

The Wildcats were 23 for 28 from the foul line.

Fox and freshman guard Malik Monk each scored 16 points. Freshman forward Bam Adebayo had 13 points, eight rebounds and a huge blocked shot that enabled Kentucky to take the lead for good in the closing minute.

Junior guard J.J. Frazier scored a career-high 36 points for Georgia (15-12, 6-8).

It took less than two minutes for the game to take a major momentum shift when Georgia leading scorer Yante Maten went down with a knee injury at the 18:25 mark.

Sophomore guard Isaiah Briscoe drove the lane to score Kentucky’s first points. He was bumped and landed into Maten, who had his leg firmly planted. Maten, who averages 19.3 points, returned to the bench midway through the first half in a brace with an ice pack.

Despite the absence of Maten, the Wildcats held only a 33-31 halftime lead. Monk had eight points and five assists. Adebayo had eight points on 4-of-5 shooting. Kentucky shot 46.2 percent but had nine turnovers.

Georgia got 14 points from Frazier and six from Parker. The Bulldogs shot 45.8 percent despite missing seven of eight 3-pointers. Georgia also had nine first-half turnovers.

NOTES: Kentucky leads the series 123-26, including 42-17 in Athens. … Georgia’s Yante Maten is the only player to move from one preseason player of the year watch list to another, from Karl Malone (power forward) to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (center). … Kentucky G Malik Monk averages 21.4 points. No John Calipari-coached player ever averaged better than 21.2 points.