No. 1 Kentucky rallies by Vanderbilt - USA TODAY

NASHVILLE – It started out looking like yet another rout by top-ranked Kentucky . It appeared for most of the second half that it would be yet another disappointing visit to Memorial Gym.

By Mark Humphrey, AP

Anthony Davis, right, had 15 points, eight rebounds and seven blocks as Kentucky remained unbeaten in the SEC.

By Mark Humphrey, AP

Anthony Davis, right, had 15 points, eight rebounds and seven blocks as Kentucky remained unbeaten in the SEC.

But in the end it turned out to be just what Kentucky coach John Calipari had hoped for: a talented opponent getting hot and shooting its way into a frantic finish that his young team would have to survive.

And they did. The Wildcats won 69-63, escaping with their 17th consecutive victory and sixth on the road in the Southeastern Conference.

"We just learned how much heart we all have," point guard Marquis Teague said. "We needed a game where we had to fight."

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After Vanderbilt surged to take the lead, then Kentucky (25-1, 11-0 SEC) responded, Commodores point guard Brad Tinsley scored five consecutive points to push the hosts ahead 63-61 with less than five minutes to play. But Wildcats sophomore Doron Lamb gave Kentucky the lead for good with 3:15 remaining, and senior Darius Miller, on an assist from a falling-down Teague, beat the shot clock with barely a minute to go to seal the victory.

The home team had hit 15 of 25 shots to open the second half but missed the final nine against the Wildcats, the nation's leader in opposing field-goal percentage. Kentucky blocked 12 shots, including seven by freshman forward Anthony Davis, who added to his national-best season total, now 127. He added 15 points and eight rebounds.

The Wildcats had lost five of six and seven of the last 10 games on the Commodores' home court. Early in Saturday's game, though, this one didn't even look like it would be close. Kentucky had won its previous four games by a combined 103 points and started similarly against Vanderbilt (17-8, 6-4).

Following a 20-point blowout over Florida on Tuesday, Calipari closed his press conference saying: "What we need to do is have a team come out and go nutty on us and have us have to respond to that and then hold on to win a tight game."

Mission accomplished, despite another hot start for the Wildcats.

Kentucky trailed 9-8 with 14:25 to go in the first half, but then Teague began to exploit a clear mismatch against Tinsley and sophomore forward Terrence Jones took over in the paint — and the Wildcats led comfortably the rest of the half.

Teague blew by Tinsley for layups, twice losing him with cat-quick spin moves, and deftly dished to open teammates for easy buckets. Lamb, who finished the first half with eight points, was the biggest beneficiary of Teague's sharing.

At one point, Teague had either scored or assisted on 14 of 16 Kentucky points. He finished the first half with eight points, five assists, three rebounds, a steal and only one turnover — arguably the finest half of Teague's college career.

"All the sudden, he's transformed into what one of our typical point guards looks like," Calipari said of Teague, who finished with 13 points, eight assists, four rebounds and just one turnover.

Likewise, Jones turned in one of his best halves of the year: 14 points, five rebounds, two blocks and two steals before the break. He hit six of seven field goals to start and Calipari called him "an absolute man" in the first 20 minutes.

One of Jones' offensive rebounds - he had three in the half - and three-point play pushed Kentucky ahead 30-16 with 3:14 to go before the break.

Vanderbilt, which entered the game as one of the nation's top three-point shooting team, was ice cold in the first half. The Commodores hit just eight of 29 field goals, including three of nine from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, the Wildcats hit 16 of 30 shots, almost all of them from close range, and led 36-23 at halftime.

The home team, however, turned things around dramatically after the break. Vanderbilt opened the second half with consecutive buckets and soon after got a three-point play from senior Jeffery Taylor that brought a packed Memorial Gym back to life.

Taylor's dunk and free throw slashed the lead to 38-30 with 18:20 left in the game. That marked the third foul for Kentucky's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist and just seconds later, senior Darius Miller picked up his fourth.

The Wildcats briefly stretched their lead back out to double digits, 42-32, but the Commodores immediately answered with a 16-6 run, finally catching fire from three-point range. Taylor hit two threes, Tinsley one and junior John Jenkins, who leads the nation in made threes, sank another during the run, which tied the game at 48 with 12:01 to go.

Miller answered for Kentucky, but then Vanderbilt started attacking the Wildcats' skinny freshman forward Davis, with 6-11, 255-pound senior Festus Ezeli. The Commodores' big man converted a three-point play to tie it again, then a layup by Tinsley finally gave Vanderbilt the lead back, 53-51, with 9:47 to go.

At that point, after the frigid first half, Vanderbilt had opened the second period hitting 12 of 18 field goals and four of six three-pointers. That set up the frantic finish Calipari had hoped for.

"We need all this," he said. "I told them in all the huddles, 'This is great for us. We got stronger and tougher today.' "

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