[ SLIDESHOW ] Cats’ offense falters, but Wall saves the day

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NEW YORK — The World’s Most Famous Arena has seen a lot of classic fights in its day. On Wednesday night, freshman guard John Wall and the No. 4 Cats (9-0) gave Madison Square Garden one more.

After jumping out to a 12-0 lead on No. 14 Connecticut (6-2), the Cats fell apart, collecting 12 first half fouls and trailing by six points at the half. In the second half, the Cats came out strong with a 24-13 run highlighted by three consecutive 3-pointers by Patrick Patterson, Wall and Darnell Dodson, respectively. It was the Cats’ first three 3-pointers of the game.

“We drank the poison in the first half, we listened to all the hype about our players and John Wall and all this stuff so we don’t pass the ball to each other,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “We didn’t make three passes in the whole first half. We go up 12 and they’re celebrating like we just won a national title.”

Patterson started the game out on the right foot for UK with a layup 15 seconds into the game. Wall then stole the ball and found fellow freshman guard Eric Bledsoe on the breakaway and Bledsoe hit an acrobatic layup to put the Cats up 4-0 and forced UConn head coach Jim Calhoun to call a quick timeout.

Calhoun couldn’t wait much longer before calling his second timeout. The freshman guard tandem of Wall and Bledsoe passed the ball back and forth while racing down the court after a Wall steal. The play concluded with a Bledsoe alley-oop pass that was finished off with a two-handed slam by Wall that received a collective “aah” from the fans in attendance. Six points later, and just over three minutes, Calhoun had to call his second timeout.

After that second timeout, the Huskies went on a 16-4 run in just over four minutes to tie the game at 16 and began playing tight defense on the Cats, causing 12 first half fouls, including two fouls each from Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Daniel Orton, Dodson and Ramon Harris. With the numerous fouls for the big men of UK, the Huskies held a 26-14 rebounding advantage at the half.

The Cats ended up shooting just 31.4 percent in the first half, and after scoring 12 points in the first 3:34 of the half, the Cats were limited to just 11 points in the final 16:26. The Huskies used a 26-6 run to take the lead and enter the locker room with a six-point advantage at 29-23.

“We rode John Wall at the end of the game,” Calipari said. “We were broken for offense so we just gave it to him and said ‘make some baskets.’ ”

The Cats found their shooting stroke again in the second half, and Wall delivered body blows, haymakers and jabs in the form of dunks, turn-around jumpers and pull-up jumpers from 15-feet. The Huskies had no answer.

With 7:16 remaining in the half, Wall picked up one of his six steals in the game and raced down court for a vicious two-handed dunk while getting fouled by UConn’s Jerome Dyson. Wall finished off the play with a free throw to put the Cats up by seven at 54-47.

Battered, bruised and down by seven, UConn rallied and took a one-point advantage with 1:12 remaining thanks to a hanging jumper by sophomore guard Kemba Walker with Wall in his face.

Wall still had an answer.

With 30.8 second left, Wall hit an acrobatic layup while driving to the lane and getting hammered by UConn freshman forward Alex Oriakhi. Wall hit the ensuing free throw to give UK a 63-61 lead and the Cats their ninth victory of the season.

“We’re 4-5 is what we are,” Calipari said. “We have a nice will to win and they’re doing some good stuff but I just told them in there, ‘Guys, we’ve got to stop drinking the poison and try to get better in practice.’ ”