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Sports

No. 1 Kentucky hangs on to beat Georgia

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

Lexington, KY (SportsNetwork.com) - Andrew Harrison scored 23 points and No. 1 Kentucky remained the country's only unbeaten team with a 69-58 win over Georgia on Tuesday.

Karl-Anthony Towns added 15 points and 13 rebounds in the win and was the only other Kentucky scorer in double figures.

The Wildcats (22-0, 9-0 SEC) extended the program's best start since 1965-66, when the team began the season 23-0.

They led by as much as 18 early in the second half but allowed Georgia (14-7, 5-4) to get back into it with a 9-1 scoring burst over a couple of minutes.

That trimmed Kentucky's lead to single digits and it was later as low as five points with under two minutes remaining after Nemanja Djurisic's layup made it 63-58.

But Towns knocked down a jumper at the other end to push the lead to seven and the Bulldogs never scored again.

They were led by Djurisic's 17 points. Yante Maten added 13 points and nine rebounds in the loss, Georgia's second in a row following a five-game winning streak.

"We got off to a tough start," Georgia coach Mark Fox said, according to the team's official website. "We really started the game poorly. We didn't play very mature in the first half. We turned the ball over too much and dug ourselves a huge hole but we decided in the second half to finally grow up.

"I felt like we really took a step forward in the second half. We competed and we didn't turn the ball over a lot and made some great plays on both ends. We were just playing from behind."

The Bulldogs are 0-15 all-time against No. 1 teams. They played a second game in a row without leading scorer and rebounder Marcus Thornton, who suffered a concussion against Vanderbilt last week.

Georgia trimmed an 11-1 Kentucky lead to four with a 6-0 run led by Djurisic, but Towns scored five points in a 10-0 Wildcats flurry later in the first half to help them build a 34-19 lead.

Towns had 11 points and six rebounds in the first half and Harrison led all players with 12 points as Kentucky shot 50 percent from the field for a 42-27 advantage at the break.

"Andrew played amazing," Towns said of his teammate. "If he could do this, what he did today, everyday, (we) would be a really scary team."

Game Notes

Kentucky leads the all-time series 118-26, including 58-5 in Lexington. The teams will meet again this season on March 3 in Athens, Georgia ... Kentucky plays at Florida on Saturday ... Georgia hosts Tennessee on Saturday.