A frustrating regular season didn't do anything to deter Kentucky from continuing its dominance in the SEC tournament, as it earned a 77-72 victory over Tennessee in Sunday's championship game. 

Tennessee didn't make life easy for the Wildcats, who looked like they would cruise to victory after storming out to a 33-16 lead.

Tennessee closed the gap to within five points at halftime and scored 10 of the first 12 points in the second half to take the lead, but Kentucky had a response to every Volunteers rally.

The Wildcats have now won each of the last four conference tournament titles and secured an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament's field of 68 in the process. 

Kentucky head coach John Calipari endured his share of trials throughout this season, including a string of four straight losses from Feb. 3-14. His team responded by getting hot at the right time.

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes explained on the ESPN broadcast what happened to his team when it fell behind in the first half and what needed to change for this comeback to be possible, via Josh Ward of Sports Radio WNML:

ESPN Stats & Info showed how the momentum swung in thee Volunteers' direction when that rally started late in the first half:

Yet every time it seemed like Tennessee had taken control, Kentucky came back with a response of its own. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored five straight points to kickstart a 14-2 run for the Wildcats that put them back up by nine points. 

Gilgeous-Alexander had an excellent run in St. Louis this week. Kentucky's star freshman had a game-high 29 points and was named MVP of the SEC tournament after averaging 21.0 points, 6.7 assists and 5.0 rebounds in three games. 

The back-and-forth battle between the two teams continued after Kentucky's run. Lamonte Turner's three-pointer at the eight-minute mark gave Tennessee a 57-55 advantage and woke up the Volunteers fans in attendance at the Scottrade Center.  

Lamonte Turner pulls up from DEEP! pic.twitter.com/Hhwx9kCTIL

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 11, 2018

As the clock continued to wind down without either team able to take control of things, Sacha Killeya-Jones made the key play with a putback dunk over two Tennessee players after Wenyen Gabriel missed a three-point attempt:

The Athletic's Aaron Torres noted Killeya-Jones should be given a controlling stake in the University of Tennessee after that dunk:

Torres also noted how impressive the work done by Calipari and this Kentucky team has been when a number of factors are taken into account:

Despite the bitter end for Tennessee, Barnes still has a team capable of doing big things as an at-large in the NCAA tournament.

The Volunteers won a share of the SEC regular-season title for the first time since 2008, and their 25 wins leading into the tournament are their most since 2010.

The last time Kentucky entered the NCAA tournament with at least 10 losses was in 2013-14 as a No. 8 seed. That group, led by freshman Julius Randle, reached the national championship game before losing to Connecticut. 

Calipari has a knack for getting his teams to peak at the right time. The Wildcats have only lost in the first weekend of the NCAA tournament once in seven appearances since Calipari took over the program in 2009. 

Sunday's game against Tennessee was the perfect litmus test for how far along these young Kentucky players have come. Instead of cracking under pressure after blowing that big first-half lead, they responded with multiple runs that eventually sealed the win. 

The reputations of Calipari and Kentucky were never going to make this team a sleeper in the NCAA tournament. After winning another SEC title, the Wildcats look primed for another deep tourney run.