NCAA Final Four: Kentucky wins Bluegrass State battle over Louisville NEW ORLEANS - Cancel that code blue alert. Kentucky fans, you can exhale now. Relax and enjoy the next 10 minutes before preparing for the season's last nervous-wreck ramp-up. The disaster-scenario defeat to arch-rival Louisville in Saturday's NCAA national semifinals was, narrowly, averted. It wasn't easy or awe-inspiring, but top-seeded Kentucky survived rival Louisville's late rush and advanced to Monday night's title game with a 69-61 win at the Superdome. Kentucky will play Kansas. "I thought we dug deep," Kentucky Coach John Calipari said. For a while, it looked like a deep six. Last week, the Cardinals trailed Florida by 11 with eight minutes left and rallied to win the West Regional. Louisville chipped away Saturday and wasn't scared at all when guard Peyton Siva's three-pointer tied the game at 49-all with 9:11 left. "They never stopped playing, got up into our bodies, created turnovers and gave themselves a chance to win," Calipari said of Louisville. Kentucky, though, showed the poise of a champion and now gets the chance to win championship No. One more Kentucky banner would leave the school only three behind UCLA's record of 11. Kentucky almost put out a missing persons report on freshman star forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who scored 24 points in the regular-season meeting against Louisville. He played only six first-half minutes because of foul trouble and was held scoreless until making a free throw with 10:08 left. He perked up after that, scoring four key baskets down the stretch. Center Anthony Davis, the Wooden Award winner and AP player of the year, finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds and capped his day with a one-handed dunk off a lob pass from Kidd-Gilchrist. "He's a great player," Louisville guard Chris Smith said of Davis. He can change every shot. Louisville Coach Rick Pitino, who coached Kentucky to the 1996 title, said it wasn't fair to compare the two squads. "To tell you the truth, I haven't always liked some of the Kentucky teams," Pitino said. I'm not going to lie to you. But I really like this team a lot because of their attitude and the way they play.