It will be Kentucky against Texas Western in the finals of the NCAA basketball tournament tonight in the University of Maryland's Cole Field House.

Kentucky edged past Duke, 83-79, and Texas Western crushed Utah, 35-78, last night to gain the finals berths.

The Miners from El Paso, Tex., overpowered Utah despite a 38-point performance by the Utes' Jerry Cambers.

Utah was playing without George Fisher, their leading rebounder, and Linden Mackay who has an injured knee.

The Utes had been the cinderella team this year, the only team in the semi-finals not listed among the top ten in current ranking. Texas Western, third-seeded in the tournament, is a strong defensive team with Nevil Shed, 6-8 rebounding.

Cambers, a 6-4 forward, completed his season as the leading scorer on the Utah team, with a 28.3 average, with an outstanding performance but his team was too weak.

Despite the Miners' continued improvement during the season, Kentucky will be favored today. The game will be telecast on channel 5 at 11:30 p.m.

Guards Louis Dampier and Larry Conley led Kentucky into the final. Dampier, only six feet, scored 23 points.

Duke, ranked second in the nation with a 25-3 season record, blew a five point lead and Kentucky in turn gave away margins of nine and seven points before the game settled down midway through the second half.

The score was tied six times between 61-61 and 71-71 before Conley, who was a doubtful starter because of a flu attack, scored on two free throws. Dampier, an All-American, passed to Pat Riley on a fast break and then scored with a layup to give Kentucky a 77-71 margin.

The teams traded baskets in the last moments of the game but Kentucky was not to be overtaken. This was the Wildcats 27th victory against one loss this season.

Some called this game the "dream game" because it watched the top-ranked teams in the nation. At the beginning of the week it looked like both teams would be hurt by illness but ailing Bob Verga of Duke and Kentucky's Conley both played. Duke was simply unable to use its power under the boards with Mike Lewis and Jack Marin against Adouph Rupp's quintet.

The Wildcats are seeking a record fifth national championship under Rupp. Now in his 36th year as Kentucky's coach, Rupp was named College Basketball Coach of the Year by the Metropolitan Basketball Writers on Monday.

Also tomorrow, the final of the National Invitation Tournament between Brigham Young and New York University will be played in Madison Square Garden.

Brigham Young, the top seed, beat Army 66-60, to gain the final. NYU defeated Villanova, 69-63, despite the strong performance of Villanova guard Bill Melchionni.

Brigham Young is primarily a fast breaking basketball team which averaged 97 points a game this season, ranking among the five highest scoring teams in the country. Despite the presence of 6-11 Jim Eakins, the team is led by Dick Nemelka and Jeff Cogdon.

The NIT has been dominated so far by the short men. Nemelka, an All-American and B.Y.U's top scorer on the team is only six feet tall. The entire Army team did not have a starter over 6-3.

Brigham Young is favored to win the game against unseeded N.Y.U. The last team to be invited to the tournament, N.Y.U. had a season record of 13-9.

The game will be televised on channel 5 WHDH, today at 2 p.m.