Anthony Davis had watched tape of the UK-North Carolina game from last year’s Elite Eight. He had been told to close out on any shooter, regardless of whether it was his man or not.

So when he was guarding Tyler Zeller on the final play and the ball bounced to John Henson for a 12-foot jump shot, Davis reacted. He sprinted at him, jumped with his arm outstretched and felt his fingertips bend backwards the slightest bit.

Game over. UK wins, 73-72. Rupp Arena crackled with electricity and the players rushed around the floor before heading into a crazed locker room and getting this command from head coach John Calipari:

“Hug Anthony,” Calipari said, “because he saved you.”

The players needed to have a group hug, because everybody contributed to the win.

Terrence Jones kept UK alive in the first half, scoring all 14 of his points then. He and Henson, matched up, battled back and forth, unafraid to let each other know when they made a play with a long look.

“He was challenged by (this type of game,” Calipari said. “It was his best game of the year.”

Exiting the half down five, it was three other players who pushed UK ahead.

“The second half was the story of Lamb, Miller and Kidd-Gilchrist,” Roy Williams said.

Miller made a key shot with three minutes left. Kidd-Gilchrist made two free throws to put UK up four with 1:33 left and was really the star of the game with 17 points and 11 rebounds, both tops on the team. Lamb hit two “huge” 3-pointers, as Calipari called them, down the stretch.

“I told Doron at halftime, if we’re going to win, you’re going to be the one to help us do it,” Jones said. “You’re going to be the one to knock down some shots for us.”

Davis closed out on Henson the same way he closed out the game: strong. Before he took the floor, he went to an assistant coach and admitted he was nervous.

Nervous, despite Terrence Jones reminding his freshmen that this was the eighth game of the season, not the national championship. Nervous, despite Calipari calling his team into his office the night before the game to tell them to relax. Then again, Calipari “told us he’d been coaching so long it felt like just another game to him.”

But it wasn’t. It really wasn’t, no matter how much anybody tried to temper the anticipation. You could tell by how the players acted in the first half, by how coaches reacted and by the way Rupp Arena crackled with electricity before, during and after the game. And it lived up to it, totally and completely. UK and North Carolina found their match, finding a team that had as much size, talent, skill and athleticism as itself.

“It just was going back and forth, point-to-point,” Davis said. “Somebody had to get a stop. I’m glad it was us, on the last play.”

Calipari compared it to a heavyweight fight. Williams noted how many “gifted youngsters” the teams had.

“This is supposed to (happen) in March,” Calipari said. “Not now.”

That’s the biggest takeaway for UK. It’s Dec. 3, and this game did nothing but bolster confidence in UK’s long-term chances.

In the here and now, though, UK can continue hugging each other, including Davis, the man who who made the play when it mattered most, blocking a shot that Calipari said nobody else in America could get to.

But UK has those guys that nobody else has. And that’s what makes them so special.

Even on Dec. 3.

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or email him at asmith@kykernel.com.

See the 2011-12 men’s basketball schedule and scores.