Lofton scores 23; Tennessee knocks off Kentucky
Associated Press
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee celebrated the return of one of its greatest all-time players and his teammates with a victory over its biggest rival.Chris Lofton scored 23 points and Duke Crews added 18 to help the Volunteers upset Kentucky (No. 18 ESPN/USA Today; No. 20 AP) 89-85 on Tuesday night.Tennessee (18-8, 6-5 Southeastern Conference) had plenty of motivation with the school's big promotion of the game -- "Paint the Town Orange" -- and a halftime ceremony to retire No. 53 worn by former All-American and NBA All-Star Bernard King.Not to mention the opponent was border rival Kentucky (18-7, 7-4), which as usual had its share of Big Blue fans who made the trip to Thompson-Boling Arena."It's a great night for Tennessee basketball and Bernard King is still beating Kentucky. That's six in a row for Bernard," said Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl, who was again wearing that blinding orange blazer."I thank Kentucky and (coach) Tubby Smith and his basketball team for helping us celebrate this with a tremendous basketball game. It wouldn't be the same without them." (link)
Love the money quote from Coach Pearl thanking the Kentucky squad. I guess Lofton does make a huge difference for this team, luckily he's only a junior and
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