Kentucky - 56 (Head Coach: Joe B. Hall) - [Ranked 2nd by AP]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	FT	FTA	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	PF	Ast	St	BS	TO	Pts
Sam Bowie	24	5	6	1	1	1	5	6	2	3	0	3	3	11
Kenny Walker	39	5	8	0	0	1	2	3	3	1	0	2	1	10
Melvin Turpin	28	3	5	1	1	1	1	2	1	0	0	1	3	7
Jim Master	35	5	11	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	11
Roger Harden	22	1	2	0	0	1	1	2	1	7	0	0	1	2
Winston Bennett	29	3	5	2	2	2	5	7	3	1	0	0	2	8
James Blackmon	11	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	6
Dicky Beal	9	0	0	1	2	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	1
Paul Andrews	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Team								3
Totals	200	25	40	6	7	6	16	25	12	15	1	6	11	56

Illinois - 54 (Head Coach: Lou Henson) - [Unranked]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	FT	FTA	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	PF	Ast	St	BS	TO	Pts
Efrem Winters	40	7	13	1	1	5	2	7	0	2	3	1	0	15
Doug Altenberger	40	8	14	3	4	0	2	2	1	3	2	0	0	19
George Montgomery	37	2	8	0	2	2	0	2	3	5	1	0	1	4
Bruce Douglas	40	6	10	0	1	0	1	1	3	8	3	0	2	12
Quinn Richardson	23	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	4
Tom Schafer	20	0	1	0	0	0	2	2	4	0	1	0	1	0
Team								1
Totals	200	25	49	4	8	7	7	15	13	19	10	1	4	54

Oh, so close - Kentucky 56, Illinois 54

CHAMPAIGN (AP) - Joe B. Hall saw Santa Claus a few hours before most people, and he just happened to be wearing Kentucky blue.

"A Christmas Eve win on the road under these conditions is just super," the Kentucky basketball coach said Saturday after freshman guard James Blackmon bank in a 15-foot jump shot with two seconds left to give No. 2 Kentucky a 56-54 triumph over previously unbeaten Illinois.

"I'm so happy with the win. I can't think of anything else," said Hall, who quickly thought of something else. "We wanted to clear out for Blackmon and let him take that shot. He made a smart coach out of me."

Illinois Coach Lou Henson said he, too, knew the ball would be going to Blackmon, but gambled on man-to-man coverage and lost.

"He made a difficult shot. Maybe we could have double-teamed him," he said, "but if you do that, you leave somebody else open."

And leaving any Kentucky player unguarded in a second half was dangerous. Kentucky shot 72 percent in the second half.

"It's very difficult to beat anybody when they shoot like that," continued Henson. "If they'd shot just a little less, we'd have won the game."

Still, Illinois managed to find some comfort in defeat.

"We proved right here we're no pushovers," said Illinois sophomore Doug Altenberger, who scored a game-high 19 points. "And I think people ought to give us a little more respect."

Quinn Richard's second basket of the contest, a long jumper from the right side with 19 seconds remaining, pulled Illinois into a 54-54 tie and set the stage for Blackmon's late heroics.

Kentucky then called time out with eight seconds to go to set up a final play. Center Sam Bowie took the inbounds pass and bounced a pass to Blackmon near center court. Blackmon dribbled toward the top of the key, then cut to the right. He pulled up just inside the pain and bank in his shot. Blackmon finished with six points.

Bowie and guard Jim Master, with 11 points each, shared team scoring honors for Kentucky, who improved to 7-0.

Illinois lost for the first time in nine outings. With Bowie playing sparingly in the first half, Illinois moved to a 33-26 lead at the intermission behind 14 points from Altenberger and 11 from Efrem Winters. But Kentucky went to the boards more aggressively to begin the second half and pulled ahead 40-39 with 13:29 left to play.

The lead exchanged hands numerous times until the eight-minute mark, when Kentucky ran off a string of five consecutive baskets - highlighted by a three-point play from Bowie - to take a 53-48 lead with 3:18 remaining.

Bruce Douglas scored at 2:43 to pull Illinois within 53-50. But Dicky Beal sank, one of two free throws at 1:24 before Altenberger responded with a short jumper at 1:04 to close within 54-52.

The game was nearly 20 minutes late in starting because none of the three Big 10 conference referees assigned to the game was able to make it to the Assembly Hall because of snow-clogged roads across central Illinois.

Three local high school referees had to be recruited to officiate the game.

Outside the Assembly Hall, the temperature at game-time was 10 degrees below zero, and minus 40 when the wind chill was factored in. Still, 7,651 fans were on hand for the contest.

Due to the bad winter weather, local referees are pulled out of the stands to officiate

Kenny Walker (#34) is surrounded by Illini defenders

James Blackmon (#10) with the game winner

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