[SLIDESHOW] Wall hits jumper with .5 seconds left to sink Miami

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By Metz Camfield
mcamfield@kykernel.com

John Wall is in the building, and he made sure everyone knew it.

With .5 seconds remaining in his collegiate debut, Wall hit a 15-foot fadeaway jump-shot. The basket not only sank Miami of Ohio’s hopes of leaving Rupp Arena with an upset win, but UK’s nightmare of a catastrophic upset loss at home for the third consecutive season.

Miami of Ohio senior guard Kenny Hayes hit a 3-point shot near the top of the key to tie the game at 70 with six seconds remaining. Wall then received the inbounds pass and raced down court before hitting the dagger just before the buzzer sounded.

“I just needed to make a shot,” Wall said. “I think if we would have let them set up into their defense it would have been tough to get a shot off because they were playing great defense help side. I was just thinking to get the ball up court and try and get to the basket but I saw they had two people back so I just made a tough shot and it went in.”

The visiting Redhawks jumped out to an 18-point lead in the first half and led the Cats for the majority of the game. After taking a 36-18 lead with just over seven minutes remaining in the half, the Cats closed out on an 18-to-3 run to pull within three at intermission.

“I was ecstatic we got down by 18, because I wanted to see what we were made of,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “And then, when this team wouldn’t go away, the thing I loved in every huddle my team was saying, ‘We’re not losing this, we’re not losing this game.’ ”

The Cats and Redhawks battled throughout the second half. The Cats took a 54-52 lead with 7:24 left in the second half, their first since being up 16-14.

After playing four minutes in the first half due to foul trouble, freshman forward DeMarcus Cousins returned with a vengeance in the second half, scoring all 10 of his points and grabbing all 10 of his rebounds after the break. With 1:26 remaining in the game, Cousins hit a lay-up while getting fouled to give the Cats a 69-67 advantage.

“That’s what he does,” junior forward Patrick Patterson said. “That’s what we look for him to do down the road and down the stretch. We know he’s a huge force to be reckoned with down low, he’s a huge body, he has great hands and great touch around the rim … For him to be able to come in and provide firepower like that only helps us.”

Wall hit a free throw with 19 seconds remaining to give the Cats the three-point advantage before Hayes’ game-tying shot. Wall then went to work and hit the game-winner to avoid disaster for the third consecutive year for UK.

Miami of Ohio was led by junior forward Nick Winbush, who hit 8 of 10 3-point attempts and scored 26 points. Winbush hit his first six 3-pointers before missing his first attempt in the second half. It wasn’t a performance the Cats were expecting and Calipari said he was just happy to get the win after such a good shooting performance from the Redhawks. Calipari said to be down 18 with a freshman-laden team and come back and win will help them as the season progresses.

“This is a work in progress,” Calipari said. “This team, what it looks like now, will be a totally different team when you talk about us at Christmas. Right now it’s pulling teeth, it’s playing with young kids who have never played major college basketball and trying to win games.”