On a throwback night at Memorial Coliseum, UK almost threw away a 20-point lead to Nevada-Las Vegas on Tuesday.

But with help from a rowdy crowd, the Cats withstood a late Rebel run. The Cats held on to win 70-60, upholding a lofty reputation of winning in the Cats’ old haunt.

With the Kentucky boys’ high school basketball state tournament occupying Rupp Arena throughout the week, the Cats (21-13, 8-8 Southeastern Conference) were forced to find a new locale for Tuesday night’s NIT opener. UK chose Memorial Coliseum, the Cats’ on-campus home from 1950-76 which still houses UK women’s basketball, volleyball and gymnastics.

The Cats are now a staggering 307-38 all-time in Memorial Coliseum. Rupp Arena’s capacity (24,000) swallows that of Memorial, but 8,327 raucous fans Tuesday — more than 800 over Memorial’s listed capacity of 7,500 — made up for it.

“The fans were loud, they had the gym rocking,” said junior Ramon Harris, who had six points, 10 rebounds and four assists in the game. “It’s what Kentucky basketball is all about. It’s better than what I was expecting. I was expecting it to be loud, but they just wouldn’t stop. I remember in the game, they were at the free-throw line and the crowd was just yelling and screaming. I was just like, man, this is what Kentucky basketball is all about.”

The crowd’s biggest reaction came early in the second half. Junior Perry Stevenson drove down the middle from beyond the 3-point line, jumped from five feet out and buried a dunk over UNLV’s Joe Darger. Darger was whistled for a blocking foul on the play, and Stevenson eventually converted on the free throw.

But not before basking in the massive ovation from the little-but-loud crowd.

“He did his little pose that he always does, standing over top of him,” Patterson said. “I just started laughing, I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time. That’s Perry for you.” Patterson, a first-team All-SEC selection, later added: “It killed anything I’ve done this season.”

Over an 11-minute span in the second half, the Rebels closed the lead to three points, 60-57. Within one possession with four minutes to play, UNLV froze under pressure from the raucous crowd, scoring just once more for the rest of the game: a meaningless 3-pointer with 16.1 seconds left.

With the season on the line, junior Jodie Meeks scored six of UK’s final 10 points to cement the win in what UK head coach Billy Gillispie called “maybe the most storied building” to ever host a basketball game.

After the game, the fun carried over to UK’s locker room. Teammates joked and high-fived. Freshman Darius Miller taunted junior Michael Porter as Porter did a television interview, forcing Porter to laugh on-camera.

Players also reflected on what longtime equipment manager Bill Keightley (“Mr. Wildcat,” who is honored on this season’s uniforms) would have thought about playing and winning a game in Memorial.

“He would’ve smiled the entire night,” Patterson said. “If he was here tonight — which we all wish he could be — he’d be laughing, smiling on the bench, having a lot of fun. For him to be back in Memorial again, he’d be talking about all of his old memories of all the previous players that played in Memorial Coliseum. He’d be giving us a history lesson, having a lot of fun, and we’d have a lot of fun listening to him.”

Said Stevenson: “He would’ve probably shed a tear. He would’ve loved it.”

With the pressure of living up to Memorial’s reputation — not to mention the disappointing season which landed the Cats in the NIT — the Cats showed no sign of nerves.

“It was great. It’s so much smaller than Rupp, so it was extremely loud,” Stevenson said. “Basketball players live off stuff like this.”

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