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Georgia’s Yante Maten leaves loss to No. 13 Kentucky with knee injury

SEC Basketball Tournament - Quarterfinals

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 13: Yante Maten #1 of the Georgia Bulldogs shoots the ball against the South Carolina Gamecocks during the quarterfinals of the SEC Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 13, 2015 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)

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Playing what may be their most important game of the season, Georgia suffered a brutal blow less than two minutes into the game.

Kentucky guard Isaiah Briscoe stumbled after scoring on a drive to the rim and fell into the right knee of Georgia’s star center Yante Maten.

Maten, a 6-foot-8 junior averaging 19.4 points this season, did not return to the game.

This is a brutal loss for the Bulldogs, who needed to beat the No. 13 Wildcats to have a realistic chance of earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, but for the sixth time this season, Georgia lost a hard-fought game to a top 25 team.

The final score on Saturday was 82-77 despite Georgia’s star point guard J.J. Frazier going for 36 points. De’Aaron Fox scored 12 of his 16 points down the stretch to help the Wildcats land a come-from-behind win in a game that, frankly, they did not play well enough to win.

That’s the sign of a good team, but that probably won’t be much comfort for Kentucky fans that are tired of seeing their team struggle. Fox finished with 16 points, five boards and five assists while Malik Monk chipped in with 16 points.

The win does keep the Wildcats atop the SEC standings.