Three freshmen combined to score 50 points for No. 2 Kentucky in Saturday's SEC Tournament semifinal against No. 15 Tennessee.

The Volunteers senior-laden line-up collectively scored just 45, as the Wildcats picked up a dominating 74-45 win to move into Sunday's SEC Tournament championship against Mississippi State.

DeMarcus Cousins led Kentucky with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while John Wall added 14 points and a team-high nine assists. Eric Bledsoe connected on five 3-pointers and scored 17 points for the Wildcats.

"We knew it was going to be a tough, physical game," Wall said. "Coach told us we come out, they're going to be physical. Don't let them punk you, and don't let them play hard on you.

"That was our game plan when we first came out. Try to play hard and don't get punked by them. I thought we did a great job."

The Wildcats never trailed during the contest, but the Vols managed to keep the game close early and trailed just 23-19 with five minutes left in the first half. However, Kentucky scored the final nine points of the half to go into the locker room up 32-19, as Cousins, Wall and Bledsoe accounted for all of the points during the run.

The Vols kept the game within striking distance for the opening 10 minutes of the second half, and closed the deficit to six when Brian Williams made a lay-up to make the score 45-39 with 9:27 to play.

Kentucky then outscored 29-6 over the remainder of the game.

"I think we got outplayed at every position," Tennessee head coach Bruce Pearl said. "Kentucky is the No. 2 team in the country for a reason. They're a really, really good team, and we just did not have the energy after playing two games and coming back and playing this third game. We just didn't have it."

Scotty Hopson, who was the only Vol to score in double digits, led the Vols with 11 points, while Williams scored all eight of his points in the second half and tied for a team-high with five rebounds.

We just can't have another effort like that because it's just not acceptable. J.P. Prince, Tennessee senior forward

Those two combined to shoot 8-for-18 from the field, but the rest of the Vols shot just 9-for-37. Seniors Wayne Chism, J.P. Prince and Bobby Maze shot a combined 26 percent.

"They just made it tough on us," said Prince, who finished with six points. "They obviously had us frustrated. We didn't make shots. We just got in a hurry.

"We kind of lost our composure at the end and didn't execute, listen to the coaches, and overall just kind of let it go at the end."

The 29-point loss is the largest margin of defeat during Pearl's five seasons at Tennessee. The Vols' second-biggest loss under Pearl came in December at Southern California. 

"You don't want to be remembered by that performance," Prince said. "We've just got to wait and see what happens, where we go next and just come out strong. We just can't have another effort like that because it's just not acceptable."