Wildcats Win In The Battle for the Bluegrass!

After a rough start to the game, The University of Kentucky Wildcats were able to hold off the Cardinals (71-62), thanks to the freshman stars John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins. Louisville had won the last 2 years in the Battle for the Bluegrass, but with this win the Cats improved to 15-0, matching their best start in 40 years. The game set a new attendance record for Rupp Arena (24,479). In one of the best rivalries in college basketball, the importance of this game was introduced very early on.

Eight seconds into the game, a foul called on Eric Bledsoe led to a quick outburst of displeasure by the 4 star freshman point guard. This resulted in his being benched by Coach Calipari, and the game's rough nature began. With the score still 0-0, one of the many loose balls was called a jump ball with Cousins on top of Cardinal's forward Jared Swopshire. In the heat of the moment Cousins gave Swopshire an elbow that required further review. Two cardinal players received technical fouls and Cousins luckily got away with only a technical for unsportsmanlike conduct. Officials tried to take control of the game early, and it showed with many quick fouls called early on. The game stayed chippy, but Cousins regained some composure and scored UK's next 6 points to lead 0-6.

Louisville players came out nervous and made for a sloppy beginning. The Cards started out 1-18, and scored only 12 points with just over a minute remaining in the first half. A wide open 3-point air ball and two missed lay-ups for Louisville added to the sloppyness. However, Kentucky did not take advantage of this and had their own problems with turnovers and shooting the ball, especially from the 3 point line. Kentucky's defense does deserve some accolade for the 19 point first half of the away team. Even with the bad start for Louisville, they were still only down 8 at halftime.

In the second half, Kentucky continued to turn the ball over, and Louisville started hitting some shots. Louisville took the lead 42-41 with 9:51 left after a free throw by forward Terrence Jennings. Then, John Wall decided to take over. Kentucky went on a 8-0 run where Wall scored 6 straight. The size and athleticism became too much for Louisville, and Kentucky proved to be the better team.

Jerry Smith and Edgar Sosa led the way for the Cards with 11 points a piece, while Cousins scored 18 points to go along with 18 rebounds, tying his career-high. John Wall and Patrick Patterson each contributed 17 point as well.

Rick Pitino's squad will continue to get better, as will the Cats. Pitino said that they did a good job of slowing down John Wall but, without making many shots, it was hard for them to get into their full-court defense. Calipari said that it was good to get such an intensely competitive game this early in the season so that he can figure out which players can handle it the best. Come tournament time, every game is intense!