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CLEVELAND -- Jason Hart finally figured it out.

As a freshman starting point guard for Syracuse three years ago, Hart endured a 38-point loss to Kentucky. The press, the zone, the pressure proved to be a typical head-spinning experience for a freshman in major college basketball.

Saturday afternoon, in the second round of the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Tournament, he overcame a sloppy start to make the big plays in the final minute of a 52-50 win over Kentucky. The Orangemen will move to the Palace of Auburn Hills next week against Michigan State.

"Down the stretch, experience definitely came into play," Hart said. "We were erratic all game, but we were able to keep our composure and poise. That's just experience and knowing my teammates."

In the final 50 seconds, with the score tied at 50, Hart tied up Kentucky point guard Saul Smith on a drive for a turnover. Then 14 seconds later, Hart penetrated the Kentucky zone, and dished to sophomore Preston Shumpert for an 18-footer from the baseline to take the lead.

Keith Bogans drove and missed for the Wildcats on the ensuing possession and Tayshaun Prince's follow caromed off at the buzzer.

It was a game in which defense dominated, as the Orangemen (26-5) shot a pathetic 31.7 percent from the field compared to 40.4 for the Wildcats (23-10). It was the lowest scoring output of the season for both teams as well. Hart had 6 points and 5 assists, as Shumpert with 12 points was the only player in double figures for Syracuse.

But the Wildcats had 19 turnovers, with center Jamaal Magloire giving it away seven times and point guard Saul Smith six. Smith, in fact, had 18 turnovers with just 13 assists in the past three games.

"We lost to a veteran team down the stretch," said Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, also Saul's father. "We did some good thing defensively."

Not offensively. Then again, the same could be said for Syracuse, which looked just as shabby with 13 miscues.

Despite a tradition of zone defenses orchestrated by Boeheim, the Orangemen looked as if they had never seen or heard of a zone when they had the ball. They forced the ball into the paint continuously in the first half for silly turnovers -- eight of them -- as they failed to figure it out until late in the half to take a slim lead.

"We shouldn't struggle against the zone," Boeheim said. "I don't know why all of a sudden we're struggling against the zone. We have good 3-point shooters. But Georgetown used zone against us, St. John's did, too. But I've got a feeling we're not going to see zone for a while now."

And even then, the Wildcats occasionally worked the ball around the perimeter enough for a trio of 3-pointers.

At the half, the deadlock at 23 was as much a reflection of the inept offenses as much as good defense. The biggest lead by either team was 6, when Kentucky led 18-12. The Cats also scored the first two baskets of the second half to take short-lived four-point lead.

The biggest problem for Syracuse was the foul trouble for senior center Etan Thomas, who fouled out with 3:46 remaining after scoring 9 points and grabbing 10 rebounds with 3 blocks.

Meanwhile, they had done a superb job on Prince, the leading scorer in a first-round win over St. Bonaventure with 28 points. He didn't score until midway through the second half and all 10 of his points came in a span of less than four minutes.

"They just did a great job defensively," Prince said. "The way they were playing, it was more like a man-to-man and that confused us a lot. I just couldn't get shots."

He hit a pair of treys and scored on a couple of back cuts for dunks with Thomas on the bench. They were courtesy of some beautiful passes from Souleymane Camara, who scored on successive dunks to tie the game at 50 with two minutes left.

"The best thing we did was outrebounding them (40-33) despite them being so much bigger than us," Boeheim said. "That kept us in the game."

Still, Kentucky was right there. The much-anticipated Magloire-Thomas matchup was a bust, considering Thomas was in foul trouble most of the game. And although Magloire did have 12 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks, he was slow and mechanical, and those 7 turnovers all but negated the good things he accomplished.

That left the game open for someone, anyone, to seize. With both teams playing 90 percent zone and not much transition available, it was inevitable that the team with the most patience was going to pull this one out, considering each team shot just 10 free throws.

Tubby Smith makes a rare early exit from the NCAA Tournament.(AP)

With Ryan Blackwell taking Magloire out of the post, and Hart making the plays to win, the seniors made sure they would get a shot to move into the Sweet 16, as opposed to Kentucky, which dealt with the continual loss of players -- subtracting 10 during the past 12 months.

Magloire was the only significant senior, with Bogans a freshman and Prince and Camara sophomores. Consequently, it was no surprise the Cats had their earliest exit since losing in the second round to Memphis in 1994.

It had nothing to do with Syracuse being pretty -- just moving on.

"Neither team could get anything done offensively, so it was a matter of will and determination that would decide who won," Boeheim said. "We just hung in there and hung in there, and made some stops to pull it out."

And in the NCAA Tournament, as Hart said, "It doesn't matter whether you win by 1 or win by 30, as long as you move on."

Experience knows all.

Shots from the perimeter

• Kentucky is the fourth consecutive team to win a first-round game in overtime and lose in the second round. It also was just Kentucky's third tournament loss over its past 24 games in the NCAA.
• Boeheim now has 31 career NCAA Tournament wins, tying him for eighth place with Jerry Tarkanian.
• This was just the second time in seven appearances that a Tubby Smith-coached team had not reached the Sweet 16.
• Thomas' 3 blocks moved him into seventh place in NCAA history, just three blocks behind Wyoming's Theo Ratliff at 425.
• Magloire's 145 career games represent the fourth most in NCAA history, tied with Stacey Augmon of UNLV.