Kentucky 90, Wake Forest 60

NEW ORLEANS -- Ish Smith, streaking down the lane alone, went up for an authoritative dunk. The ball slammed off the heel of the rim and bounced into the other half of the court.

Two nights after Smith hit the overtime game-winner for Wake Forest, he couldn’t get a dunk to fall. Their emotional and physical reservoirs emptied, the Demon Deacons saw their season end in the second with a 90-60 loss to Kentucky on Saturday.

The last time the Demon Deacons made the Sweet 16, Chris Paul was playing point guard for them instead of the NBA team that plays in this arena. They were denied a return trip by a Kentucky team that was far too athletic for Wake Forest (20-11) to handle -- particularly after Al-Farouq Aminu picked up his third foul less than nine minutes into the game.

“It snowballed on us a little bit and it got away from us,” Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. “Defensively, they change and alter so many shots. They’re really, really good defensively, and boy, they have some skill guys on offense.”

The Wildcats (34-2), now the tournament favorites after Kansas’ surprise ouster earlier Saturday, won their 100th NCAA tournament game of all time.

Aminu led Wake Forest with 16 points, while C.J. Harris added 11. Kentucky had four players in double figures, led by Darius Miller with 20.

The first two fouls on Aminu came in less than four minutes, but Gaudio held him out of the game only briefly. Two minutes later, he picked up his third battling with DeMarcus Cousins for a rebound.

“I’m not complaining about it, but I just felt like I could be more aggressive because it was the NCAA tournament,” Aminu said. “I was geared one way after the Texas game, they let us really play a lot. It kind of baffled me they made those two calls. I guess I should have adjusted after the second one, but I didn’t and I picked up my third.”

Smith’s missed dunk was one of eight consecutive missed shots by the Deacons during a stretch of the first half that saw Kentucky dominate but fail to press its advantage due to a string of missed free throws and turnovers.

The game had shifted, even if the scoreboard didn’t reflect that until later in the half, when the Wildcats went into halftime on a 15-4 run. The second half was all Kentucky.

The much-anticipated Smith vs. John Wall matchup materialized on only one end of the court, with Smith guarding Wall but Wall guarding L.D. Williams. Smith, who had 19 points in the first-round win over Texas, was held to two Saturday on 1-for-9 shooting. Wall had 14 points and seven assists.

The Wake Forest careers of Smith, Williams, Chas McFarland and possibly Aminu came to an end, if he hears the NBA calling. Together, those four players accounted for 62 percent of Wake’s scoring this season. They also brought Wake its first NCAA victory in five years. The degree of Saturday’s loss doesn’t take anything away from that.

“We wanted to change the culture at Wake Forest,” Smith said. “People have maybe put a stamp on us that we’re a heck of a regular season team but in the postseason we stumble. This year, we beat a heck of a Texas team and ran into a really good Kentucky team. I talked to our freshmen in the locker room and said, ‘Know this feeling. Know that you want to get back.’ ”