No. 3 Kentucky 72, Maryland 69: Kyle Wiltjer led the way with 19 points as the Wildcats battled through a tough second half and held off the Terrapins in Brooklyn.

Archie Goodwin led the latest group of talented freshmen with 16 points and Jarrod Polson scored 10 off the bench for the Wildcats, who lost the top six players from last season’s national championship squad.

Wiltjer seemed to put it away with a pair of free throws with 25 seconds left but Goodwin fouled Maryland center Alex Len on the ensuing possession and the big man hit the first free throw, got his own rebound on the second and put it back to cut it to 69-68. Polson was fouled at the other end and calmly buried two free throws to put it away.

Len scored 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting and added 12 rebounds and four blocks to lead Maryland, which shot 33.3 percent from the floor but managed to hang around thanks to 23 offensive rebounds.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 49-36 lead at the half, shooting 58.1 percent in the first 20 minutes as Goodwin and Wiltjer combined for 24 points. The second half was a different story for Maryland, which turned it around on the defensive end and eventually took the lead on back-to-back 3-pointers by Seth Allen with 8:18 left before Kentucky came back.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Maryland F Dezmine Wells, who was declared eligible by the NCAA on Wednesday after being expelled by Xavier over the summer, scored eight points on 2-of-12 shooting in his debut for the Terrapins. … No. 1 overall recruit Nerlens Noel was held to four points on 2-of-6 shooting for Kentucky, but grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots. … The Wildcats totaled 11 blocked shots, with freshman Willie Cauley-Stein swatting away four.