Game analysis: Davis does everything but score for Kentucky - USA TODAY

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Game analysis: Davis does everything but score for Kentucky - USA TODAY Apr 3rd 2012, 03:13 By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY Updated NEW ORLEANS - Kentucky had the rosterful of young stars, the tournament's overall No. 1 seed, the aura. By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor has his shot blocked by Kentucky forward Anthony Davis in the NCAA championship game Monday in New Orleans. By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY Kansas guard Tyshawn Taylor has his shot blocked by Kentucky forward Anthony Davis in the NCAA championship game Monday in New Orleans. Kansas had an assurance born of three grinding, find-a-way weeks in the tournament, a growing sense — as the Jayhawks erased deficit after deficit — that this was their year. Advantage, superior talent in a lopsided first half of Monday's NCAA championship game. Biggest stage of their young lives? The callow Wildcats didn't blink. They shot 53% in the first half, swatted away five Kansas shots and outrebounded the Jayhawks 41-27. They pulled ahead by as many as 18 points, and went to the halftime locker room up 41-27. National player of the year Anthony Davis didn't score a point in those first 20 minutes, missing all four shots he took, but quickly established his turf down low. The 6-10 freshman swatted shots. He snatched rebounds. His teammates, starting with freshman point guard Marquis Teague, hit 12 of their first 19 shots. With back-to-back three-pointers by Teague and Doron Lamb, the Wildcats were in command, 31-19, with 6:30 left in the half. Darius Miller added another trey, Lamb a jumper from the right corner. It capped a 20-7 run that made it 39-21 with a little less than three minutes remaining. Kentucky had beaten Kansas 75-65 back in November — both teams' second game of the season — and Davis got the better of Kansas big man Thomas Robinson in that game, finishing with 14 points, six rebounds and seven blocks. Four months later, and four months older, Davis was even more clearly the better player. He had three first-half blocks in the game's first 12 minutes. Robinson and 7-foot teammate Jeff Withey struggled, hitting just five of a combined 17 shots in the half. Robinson came away with eight points, Withey five. Point guard Tyshawn Taylor at least breathed a little life into the Jayhawks just before the first-half buzzer, scoring on a spin drive. Alas, it merely cut their deficit to 14. For more information about reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to corrections.usatoday.com. USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the FAQ and Conversation Guidelines.  This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.

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