Sheppard followed with an alley-oop layup 13 seconds later, but the Hoosiers (3-3) rallied again with a jumper by A.J. Guyton with 3:38 to play and a 3-pointer from Rob Turner 2:04 later that cut it to 74-72.
Each team missed a basket before Kentucky's Heshimu Evans had a short jumper blocked. The Hoosiers worked the ball into the lane to Luke Recker, who fed William Gladness, but he missed the rim on a two-foot hook shot. Wayne Turner got the rebound and was fouled with 6.2 seconds to go, but only converted one free throw. Following a timeout, Indiana worked a nice play to get a shot for Guyton, but his 3-point attempt hit the front of the iron.
Cameron Mills tallied all 12 of his points in the first half on 3-pointers for Kentucky, which has won six of the last seven meetings with Indiana to take a 21-20 lead in the all-time series. The Wildcats have played all but one game this year at neutral sites.
"I felt it was a great college basketball game," said Kentucky coach Tubby Smith. "I certainly want to commend Indiana and their players ... they fought back and we just couldn't score in the few minutes of the game, but we executed defensively." Rob Turner scored a career-high 25 points, 19 in the first half, and Guyton added 19, eight rebounds and six assists for Indiana, which had a two-game winning streak come to an end.
"(Rob Turner) really competes, and he's just got to learn how to play," said Indiana coach Bob Knight. "He had no coaching whatsoever in junior college. He just nods his head and tries. You've got to kind of like that."
Sheppard tallied the final five points of the first half on a layup and 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds to play as Kentucky assumed a 46-39 halftime cushion. Each team shot better than 51 percent from the field in the half.
"I thought we played pretty well in the first half and probably the weakest spot was the last couple of minutes of the first half when we let things get away from us," said Knight, whose team committed 21 turnovers.
(7) Kentucky 75, Indiana 72 KENTUCKY (75) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp Edwards 27 2-8 0-0 1-1 1 3 4 Padgett 31 3-9 0-0 4-10 3 2 6 Magloire 15 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 Turner 28 1-8 2-3 0-0 5 2 4 Sheppard 30 9-20 0-0 3-5 2 2 21 Mohammed 25 8-11 5-8 5-12 0 2 21 Smith 12 0-2 0-0 1-1 3 0 0 Evans 18 2-3 0-0 0-1 2 1 5 Anthony 5 0-0 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 Mills 9 4-6 0-0 0-2 0 2 12 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 200 30-69 7-11 14-33 16 16 75 _______________________________________________ Percentages: FG-.435, FT-.636. 3-Point Goals: 8-23, .348 (Edwards 0-3, Padgett 0-4, Turner 0-1, Sheppard 3-7, Smith 0-2, Evans 1-1, Mills 4-5). Team rebounds: 2. Blocked shots: 1 (Mohammed). Turnovers: 14 (Magloire 3, Mohammed 3, Padgett 3, Mills 2, Turner 2, Evans). Steals: 7 (Mohammed 2, Padgett 2, Evans, Sheppard, Turner). INDIANA (72) fg ft rb min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp Recker 21 3-5 1-2 1-3 2 4 8 Patterson 19 1-1 0-0 0-3 0 2 2 Collier 20 1-4 0-0 2-6 1 1 2 Turner 32 10-13 1-1 2-6 5 0 25 Guyton 38 6-17 4-5 0-8 6 2 19 Lewis 13 0-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 0 Richardson 5 1-2 0-0 0-1 0 0 2 Mandeville 12 2-2 2-2 0-2 0 4 6 Gladness 24 3-6 0-1 2-4 3 0 6 Jiminez 16 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 _______________________________________________ TOTALS 200 28-54 8-11 7-33 18 16 72 _______________________________________________ Percentages: FG-.519, FT-.727. 3-Point Goals: 8-18, .444 (Recker 1-3, Turner 4-6, Guyton 3-7, Lewis 0-1, Jiminez 0-1). Team rebounds: 1. Blocked shots: 3 (Gladness 2, Patterson). Turnovers: 21 (Guyton 7, Turner 4, Mandeville 2, Patterson 2, Recker 2, Collier, Gladness, Lewis). Steals: 5 (Turner 2, Gladness, Lewis, Mandeville). __________________________________ Kentucky 46 29 - 75 Indiana 39 33 - 72 __________________________________ Technical fouls: None. A: 38,504. Officials: Tom O'Neill, Ed Hightower, John Clougherty.