COLUMBIA, S.C. - South Carolina's Antoine Tisby made up for some lost time against Kentucky.

Tisby had played just eight minutes in the past five games, but his 13-point performance in a 73-61 upset of No. 3 Kentucky Tuesday night helped keep alive the Gamecocks' hopes of a second consecutive trip to the NCAA tournament.

Tisby sat out for two of those five games and didn't even make the trip to Florida Jan. 29. But South Carolina coach Dave Odom had a talk with the 6-foot-8 center at Sunday's practice.

"I just told him, 'It's time for you, son, to get into the rotation,'" Odom said. '"I don't know how many more chances you're going to get, but I'm going to give you one Tuesday night.'"

Tisby had previously scored in double figures twice this season, but Odom knew he needed more size against the Wildcats.

"He invigorates our lineup with energy when he commits himself," Odom said. "He has not always done that."

It was the first home win for the Gamecocks (14-8, 6-5 Southeastern Conference) over Kentucky (19-3, 10-1) since 1997, the year they also beat the Wildcats at Rupp Arena.

But it's truly been a rare feat. South Carolina has won just six of 41 meetings against Kentucky, which never looked in synch and could have been hung over from a sluggish nine-point win against Georgia over the weekend.

Fans poured onto the court after the victory, arguably South Carolina's best in coach Odom's four years at South Carolina.

"I don't know," he said, recalling wins against LSU and Alabama, and a victory over Kentucky in the SEC tournament in 2002. "We haven't beaten Kentucky often. We needed it at this time more than maybe some of the others."

The Wildcats, who had won 19 straight against SEC opponents, had a season-high 21 turnovers and Chuck Hayes was held to just one point. Kelenna Azubuike led Kentucky with 16 points, but he had just five in the second half.

"They had a great crowd here tonight and I thought our guys just kind of panicked a little bit," Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said.

Eric Williams and Chris Paul each scored 13 points for the visiting Demon Deacons (22-3, 10-2), who won their sixth straight overall and reached 10 wins in the Atlantic Coast Conference for the second time in eight seasons. It was Wake Forest's lowest point total since December, 18 below its average.Guillermo Diaz had 20 points for the Hurricanes (15-8, 6-6), who shot 33 percent in the second half.

Charlie Villanueva had 22 points and 10 rebounds to lead the visiting Huskies (16-6, 8-3 Big East), who scored the first seven points of the second overtime. Marcus Williams had 15 points and 13 assists and Josh Boone had 11 points and 10 rebounds for UConn, which was coming off a loss to then-No. 2 North Carolina. The Huskies were again without leading scorer Rashad Anderson, who's hospitalized as he recovers from an infection in his leg.Ryan Gomes, a first-team All-America last season as a junior, scored a career-high 37 points - including all of the Friars' 11 in the second overtime - to go over the 2,000-point milestone in his career. Providence (11-14, 1-10) was coming off its only conference win of the season.

Allan Ray scored 23 points to lead the Wildcats (15-6) to their biggest win of the season just three days after they were handed their worst loss by No. 9 Syracuse.Chris McNaughton had 17 points for the visiting Bisons (17-8), who beat then-No. 10 Pittsburgh and Saint Joseph's this season.