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Kentucky escapes Notre Dame's upset bid to return to the Final Four

Kentucky has made it to the Final Four undefeated, but it endured quite a scare from Notre Dame in the Elite Eight on Saturday in Cleveland.

All season long college basketball analysts and fans have been asking what it would take to beat the Wildcats, who are widely considered one of the most talented teams in the history of the college game.

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Notre Dame provided as good a blueprint as anyone has all season but couldn’t finish the job in the final minutes of a feisty, gritty, determined, leave-it-all-out-there effort. Kentucky survived 68-66 thanks to two Andrew Harrison free throws with six seconds left. Notre Dame's Jerian Grant sprinted down the court and had an opportunity to win the game at the buzzer, but Kentucky's swarming defense made him double-pump and his shot missed the mark.

Harrison may have scored the final points of the game, but Karl Anthony-Towns carried the Wildcats to this win. The 6-foot-11 product of Piscataway, N.J. seemed unstoppable at times in the paint. Towns scored 25 points, and coach John Calipari and Towns’ teammates deserve credit for recognizing his dominance and continually feeding him the ball.

Mar 28, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Kentucky Wildcats celebrate after the game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the finals of the midwest regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Quicken Loans Arena. Kentucky won 68-66. (Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports)
Mar 28, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Kentucky Wildcats celebrate after the game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the finals of the midwest regional of the 2015 NCAA Tournament at Quicken Loans Arena. Kentucky won 68-66. (Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports)

Kentucky advances to its 17th Final Four and its fourth trip in the past five years. The Wildcats improved to 38-0.

The score was tied 31-31 at the half and was tight throughout, but Notre Dame consistently put the Wildcats in the unusual position of playing from behind.

The Wildcats handled the pressure of that exceedingly well. Willie Cauley-Stein missed a tip-in attempt with 12 minutes, 16 seconds left in the game. It was the final missed field goal attempt of the night for Kentucky. The Wildcats made nine consecutive shots to win the game.

Despite that fact, Notre Dame was able to take a lead into the final 90 seconds. But the Irish missed their final three attempts, all jump shots by Grant

When Kentucky is in trouble in the NCAA tournament it turns to Aaron Harrison. It happened again Saturday when Harrison buried a 3-pointer from well beyond NBA range with just over three minutes left to give Kentucky a one-point lead and force a Notre Dame timeout.

But when the Fighting Irish came back down the floor, Grant, the team's catalyst all season, answered with a 3-pointer of his own from similar distance.Grant scored 15 points and dished six assists. Forward Zach Auguste led Notre Dame with 20 points and he grabbed nine rebounds, despite dealing with foul trouble. Bonzie Colsom provieded 13 valuable minutes off the bench.

Guard Pat Conaughton suffered through a poor shooting night but he contributed nine rebounds.

Notre Dame went 29 minutes without committing a turnover but gave the ball back to the Wildcats with a shot clock violation in the final 34 seconds. That allowed Kentucky to bleed the clock before Andrew Harrison drove the lane and drew the foul with six seconds left. He cooly sunk both to send Kentucky back to the Final Four.

 

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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at kyle.ringo@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!