Kentucky - 80 (Head Coach: Orlando Smith) - [Ranked 3rd by AP]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	3pt FG	3pt FGA	FT	FTA	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	PF	Ast	St	BS	TO	Pts
Heshimu Evans	16	4	7	0	1	0	0	1	1	2	3	1	1	0	2	8
Scott Padgett	26	2	8	1	5	0	0	2	8	10	0	3	2	0	1	5
Michael Bradley	20	8	12	0	0	0	0	4	3	7	4	0	2	0	3	16
Wayne Turner	21	1	4	0	1	0	0	0	2	2	0	5	3	0	5	2
Tayshaun Prince	20	2	7	1	3	0	0	1	6	7	0	2	0	0	2	5
Jamaal Magloire	16	6	7	0	0	3	4	0	3	3	2	0	3	1	0	15
Desmond Allison	20	2	4	0	1	0	0	0	3	3	2	3	1	1	1	4
Ryan Hogan	17	5	8	3	5	2	3	0	4	4	0	1	2	0	2	15
Saul Smith	15	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	5	2	0	2	2
Souleymane Camara	14	4	7	0	0	0	0	1	3	4	3	1	0	0	2	8
Todd Tackett	9	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Steve Masiello	6	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0
Team										10
Totals	200	35	69	5	17	5	7	9	34	53	17	24	16	2	20	80

Georgia Tech - 39 (Head Coach: Bobby Cremins) - [Unranked]

Player	Min	FG	FGA	3pt FG	3pt FGA	FT	FTA	Off Reb	Def Reb	Tot Reb	PF	Ast	St	BS	TO	Pts
Jason Floyd	34	1	10	0	7	0	0	1	1	2	2	1	3	1	2	2
Jason Collier	36	5	16	1	4	3	4	2	5	7	2	2	0	1	6	14
Alvin Jones	36	3	4	0	0	0	3	4	7	11	1	1	0	4	4	6
T.J. Vines	25	0	8	0	5	1	4	0	0	0	2	1	3	0	2	1
Darryl LaBarrie	20	3	9	0	1	0	0	1	1	2	3	0	0	0	1	6
Ashley Kelly	7	0	2	0	0	0	0	2	2	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
Paul Trotti	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jason Prentice	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Kyle Perry	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kevn Kincaid	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Tony Akins	38	2	12	1	9	3	4	0	3	3	3	2	6	0	4	8
Team										3
Totals	200	15	62	2	26	7	16	10	19	32	13	8	12	6	19	39

Game Writeup - Courtesy of Dr. Jeffrey Neil Burch; Dr. J's UK Newsletter, Vol. 8 No. 23. (All Rights Reserved)

The Second Burning of Atlanta:

The city of Atlanta was 1st burned by General William Tecumseh Sherman in September of 1864 during the Civil War. It was again charred on Dec 19, 1998 as the 3rd ranked (AP) Kentucky Wildcats scorched everything in their path when playing against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The Cats won 80-39 in a game not as close as the final score would indicate. ESPN televised the Delta Airlines Classic game from the Georgia Dome (Fresno State beat Georgia in overtime in the 1st game).

Like many an NCAA game in the past which became so 1-sided early that CBS decided to switch coverage, the Cats blitzed out to a 25-2 lead. Following a Bradley putback of his own miss, a long Padgett 3, and a Turner drive to the hoop, it was 7-0 Kentucky. Georgia Tech's Jason Collier put back an Akins miss to make it 7-2 with about 16 minutes remaining, and the Jackets would not score again for about 7 minutes. During this run, Bradley made a driving layup, Padgett put back a Hogan miss, Hogan hit a long 2, Magloire made an old-fashioned 3, Magloire hit a half hook, Labarrie of Tech accidentally knocked in a shot (which was credited to Bradley, the nearest Wildcat), and Prince made a 12 footer. The Yellow Jackets were 1-16 from the floor when Collier scored to make it 25-4. At this pt, many in the crowd stood and cheered derisively. Camara had a layup and Collier made 2 FTs, with the score 27-6 at the next TV timeout (with 8 minutes left in the half). After this, Akins made 1 FT, Magloire drove to the hoop and dunked, Allison made an 8 footer, Labarrie answered with the same shot, and Magloire made a left handed hook to make it 33-9. Akins and Magloire each shot 1 FT, then Collier got a dunk past the Kentucky defense. Turner had an assist to Bradley, and finally Hogan connected on a bank shot to provide the final scoring of the half and make it 38-12 Kentucky. The 15% Georgia Tech FG shooting was a record, with the previous worst also coming at the hands of Kentucky in 1960 at 16%. UK also controlled the boards, with a 26-14 halftime lead in that statistic.

It was more of the same in the 2nd half, although Kentucky was obviously not trying to run up the score and experienced more turnovers which kept the final score lower than it might have been. Evans and Prince scored early, while Jones finally got pts on a dunk. A GT breakdown during an inbounds play allowed Evans to dunk to make it 47-14. Collier had a reverse layup, Bradley dunked the ball, then Collier drove for another layup. Tech had another defensive breakdown, and Bradley had an uncontested dunk for a 51-18 margin at the next TV timeout. Camara dunked and Smith had a long 2 (foot on the line again) before Collier connected on a 3, for a 55-21 score. Floyd had a putback, marking only the 2nd time in the game that GT had scored without UK pts in between. Floyd and Magloire traded shots, then so did Allison and Labarrie. Magloire and Collier made single FT shots, and Evans hit a long 2 for a 64-26 Kentucky lead. Moments later, Bradley touched an Evans shot on the rim so that the basket was disallowed. Akins stole the ball from Smith a couple of times, and made FTs and a layup off of these. Bradley had a putback, Jones hit a turnaround shot, and Hogan nailed a 3 for a 71-34 edge. Akins finally hit a 3 himself, then Hogan made 2 FTs for a 73-37 margin with 3 minutes left. Kentucky outscored GT 7-2 during this time, with a Camara dunk and a Prentice layup providing the final scoring on an 80-39 Kentucky victory.

Tech's 39 pts offensively was its lowest production since a 53-38 loss to Wake Forest in Greensboro, NC in 1982 (in Cremins' 1st season in Atlanta). The Yellow Jacket's last 41 pt loss was at Duke in 1991. Magloire's 15 pts are a season high for him.

Heshimu Evans grabs a rebound

Michael Bradley dunks

Desmond Allison drives

This page was made with a Macintosh
Use the Best, Don't settle for Less