They’ve been the backbone of this UK team in the past, and they will be in the future, and they were on Saturday.

In a 65-62 win at Tennessee, Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist toppled the Volunteers with 35 points and 20 rebounds combined.

In crunch time, it was not a road-tested veteran who took over the game. It was that freshman pair, scoring 13 of UK’s last 18 points, who got it done.

Even better for UK, they’re learning, and it’s showing.

Late in the game, Davis got the ball on the left block. He posted up — something he rarely does — and gave a quick shoulder fake before rising up for a baby hook.

“I definitely developed that,” Davis said. “Work on it every day with coaches.”

It was a shot he couldn’t have made before he got to UK.

“That shot he made, in that situation, first time in his life,” Calipari said. “He hadn’t made a shot like that in high school.”

Another play: Doron Lamb threw a lob Davis’ way, but it was too far away from the basket for Davis to finish it in one leap. Instead, he caught the ball while twirling, came down, and sprung back up.

The play combined his freakish freakishness with a learned knowledge of how to handle the situation. Calipari said on Friday Davis was coming along faster than he expected; Davis’ thoughtful play was an example of that notion.

“What would he do in other games?” Calipari said. “Dunk it anyway. So he’s learned.”

Kidd-Gilchrist, meanwhile, learned to fearlessly take a shot. With 4:55 to play and UK up one, Kidd-Gilchrist got the ball behind the arc with space in front of him. He’s a 32 percent 3-pointer shooter on the season and had missed 3 of 10 shots up to that point.

“I bet he didn’t know he had missed a few shots before he shot that three,” Calipari said. “All he knew was, that ball was going down.”

Kidd-Gilchrist let it go, and that ball went down.

“He trusts me, so that’s one thing,” Kidd-Gilchrist said, referring to his coach.

Sitting beside him at the post-game press conference, Calipari was quick to jump in: “I would have been mad if he didn’t shoot it.”

There’s not much to be mad at when it comes to Kidd-Gilchrist and Davis. The pair carried UK to another conference win, its second on the road in the span of a week, matching last year’s total.

In the process, the Cats are learning about themselves, too. UK entered halftime after 3:45 of terrible basketball — zero made shots, a technical foul on Calipari — that followed its first lead of the game. In the locker room, players reminded each other that “we didn’t come all the way down here to lose this game,” Davis said.

That meets the requirements of Calipari’s favorite attribute, the “will to win.” Find a way to make a play.

“Winning basketball games,” Calipari said of Kidd-Gilchrist, “happens because of guys like this.”

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