Wildcats' winning ways
Mar. 27, 2003. 09:59 PM
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — With Keith Bogans watching helplessly from the bench in the second half, Kentucky turned to the power of Marquis Estill to ward off Wisconsin.
Estill scored a career-high 28 points Thursday night and the Wildcats ran their winning streak to 26 games, holding off the scrappy Badgers 63-57 in the Midwest Regional semifinals.
Top-seeded Kentucky (32-3) will try for another trip to the Final Four on Saturday when it meets the Pittsburgh-Marquette winner.
Bogans, the Wildcats' top scorer and floor leader, sprained his left ankle with 3:32 left in the first half when Wisconsin's Kirk Penney committed a turnover, turned around to run back down the floor and fell over the Kentucky star.
Bogans winced on the bench during a timeout, lobbied to get back in and then limped on the court with just under two minutes left. But hampered and in obvious pain, he headed to the locker-room with 53 seconds to go in the half.
He didn't take part in warmup before the second half but finally limped to the Kentucky bench five minutes in.
With Bogans standing in front of the bench with his hands cupped, the Wildcats went on a 12-4 run and held Wisconsin without a field goal for more than six minutes, taking a 50-44 lead with 9:19 left and looking as if they were ready to pull away.
But the fifth-seeded Big Ten champs, bolstered by thousands of thundering red-clad fans who had an easy drive across the Wisconsin state line to the Metrodome, wouldn't go away.
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