Kentucky fights off Stanford in overtime

Posted: Sun March 29, 1998 at 12:36 PM ET

Nazr Mohammed scored 18 points to send Kentucky to its third straight national title game    (AP)

SAN ANTONIO (CNN/SI) -- In a tournament that has featured one thriller after another, anything less in the national semifinals would have been disappointing.

This was another thriller. And it went right down to the wire.

The Kentucky Wildcats picked up where they left off last season, beating taller, brawnier and supposedly smarter Stanford 86-85 in overtime Saturday to advance to the Final Four championship game for the third straight year.

Kentucky got the job done this time with the slick 27-point shooting of Jeff Sheppard and moved within one victory of its seventh national title.

Champions two years ago and runners-up to Arizona last year under Rick Pitino, the Wildcats' return to the title game with a team that Tubby Smith inherited but shaped into his own.

More than a collection of thoroughbreds racing up and down the court, this Kentucky squad coped cleverly with Stanford and overcame the absence of a superstar by playing with slick teamwork.

Down by as many as 10 points in the second half, Kentucky stepped up the defensive pressure with Smith standing and screaming on the sideline and rode the outside shooting of Sheppard and the inside muscle of Nazr Mohammed to victory.

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Sheppard scored six of his points in overtime, and Mohammed bounced back from foul trouble and a scoreless first half to score 18 points.

Arthur Lee, the hero of Stanford's victory over Rhode Island in the Midwest Regional final, led the Cardinal with 26 points while backcourt teammate Kris Weems scored 17.

"We kept our composure throughout and hung in there when things weren't going well for us," Smith said.

Kentucky (34-4) trailed most of the game but scored the first five points in overtime, all by Mohammed and Sheppard, to jump to a 78-73 lead and Stanford never recovered.

"This team has gone through a lot this year," Sheppard said. "It's been fun to pull together. We are like a family, like brothers out there."

In its first Final Four since winning the title in 1942, Stanford (30-5) got within a point three times down the stretch but saw its chance of an upset fade when Peter Sauer missed a long heave at the buzzer.

Stanford turned the ball over only twice in the first half, but Kentucky's pressure in the second half and overtime forced the Cardinal to make 13 turnovers.

Weems, Stanford's leading scorer most of the season but averaging only 5 points in the NCAA tournament going into this game, had the green light to keep shooting and sank three of 11 shots, all 3-pointers, in the first half. But he also hurt Stanford by shooting only 6-for-23 overall.

Lee clicked on five of eight 3-pointers and did a superb job of controlling the tempo for the Cardinal most of the game.

Stanford jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the first five minutes of the game, and led throughout the half despite one five-minute stretch when the Cardinal couldn't get off a shot and Kentucky came back to 18-17.

Staying in a man-to-man defense and keeping Kentucky's fast break contained with good position under the boards, Stanford rode 3-pointers by Weems and Lee to a 37-32 halftime lead.

Mohammed picked up two fouls in the first few minutes, sat out most of the rest of the first half, and went scoreless until hitting three inside shots in a row early in the second half.

But Stanford kept answering Kentucky's inside shooting with 3-pointers, including one by Sauer that gave the Cardinal its biggest lead of the second half, 46-36, and another by Lee that made it 49-40 after two quick baskets by Mohammed.

The Wildcats fought back to 49-48 on a basket by Mohammed, a 3-pointer by Allen Edwards and a steal, drive and foul shot by Sheppard.

Arthur Lee led Stanford with 26 points, including scoring the first eight of the game    (AP)

Kentucky stayed close but couldn't grab the lead, despite chances on four possessions, until Scott Padgett sank two free throws to put the Wildcats ahead for the first time, 54-53, with 10:04 left.

A 10-foot hook by Mohammed made it 56-53, but Stanford regained the lead with two straight baskets before a pair of free throws by Mohammed, on Tim Young's fourth foul, put Kentucky ahead again with 7:23 to go.

With the 7-foot-1 Young going to the bench, Stanford lost a big presence in the middle who had accounted for 10 points and seven rebounds.

That meant Mark Madsen had to step up even more, and he responded with an offensive rebound, layup and free throw that put Stanford ahead once more, 68-66, with 3:04 left in regulation.

Kentucky made it 72-66 on two 3-pointers by Sheppard, but another offensive rebound and layup by Madsen, and a 3-pointer by Lee with 26 seconds left after a Kentucky free throw tied the game 73-73.

With three seconds to go in regulation, Turner missed a short bank, and Madsen rebounded to give Stanford a chance to win the game with 1.1 seconds left. But a 40-foot heave by Weems under pressure fell well short and the game went into overtime.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.