Kentucky comeback falls short in rivalry loss to Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The biggest game in the Yum Center in years didn’t go well for Kentucky.

No. 12 Louisville nearly landed a knockout punch in the first half before finishing off the ninth-ranked Wildcats in the second. The Cards ended up surviving a scare in the final minutes before claiming a 96-88 victory over UK on Tuesday night in the Yum Center.

The Louisville fans were rocking for this one — the official attendance was 22,586, with only a smattering of blue in the crowd — as the Cardinals declared their return in a rivalry that has been dominated by UK for most of the past two decades.

Now in season two under head coach Pat Kelsey, the Cards were ranked for a game against Kentucky for the first time in six years. Mark Pope, who is also in his second season as UK’s head coach, led the Cats to a 93-85 win in Rupp Arena last December, but round two was all Louisville.

The Cardinals nearly put Kentucky away in the first half before settling for a seven-point halftime lead. They rebuilt their advantage right out of the gate in the second half.

Ryan Conwell and Isaac McKneely — two of Kelsey’s major acquisitions out of the transfer portal this past offseason — started the second half with 3-pointers on U of L’s first two possessions, and that seven-point lead had grown to 11 a little more than a minute in.

By the second TV timeout of the half, the Cards led 78-58 — their biggest advantage of the night — and the Cats looked like they were cooked with 12:24 still left on the clock. But it wasn’t quite over there either.

A flurry of 3-pointers — two from Collin Chandler, and one each from Jaland Lowe and Kam Williams — helped the Cats narrow the Cards’ advantage, but U of L still led by double digits with under six minutes left on the clock.

That’s when Kentucky struck again.

A couple of free throws from Denzel Aberdeen and a dunk by freshman center Malachi Moreno cut Louisville’s lead to 87-81 with 4:53 left. Another 3-pointer from Chandler made it an 88-84 game with 4:02 remaining. And that was the score as the two teams huddled up for the final TV timeout of the night.

But that’s as close as the Cats would get.

Freshman sensation Mikel Brown Jr. converted a three-point play for the first score out of that TV timeout, and the Cards managed to hold off Kentucky in the final two minutes.

Brown led Louisville with 29 points and five assists. He was 10 for 11 on free throws.

The Cats struggled defensively, giving up open looks all night long and failing to put much pressure on the ball for long stretches. Louisville didn’t commit its first turnover until only 3:15 remained in the first half, and the Cards had just six turnovers for the game.

Aberdeen scored a career-high 26 points to lead Kentucky, adding a team-high seven rebounds.

UK had won 14 of the past 17 meetings in this rivalry, dating back to John Calipari’s first season as the Wildcats’ head coach. Louisville’s last victory in the series came on Dec. 26, 2020 — a 62-59 win in a game between two unranked teams in the Yum Center.

The first half Tuesday night was defined by a major Louisville run.

Kentucky led 22-19 — its biggest advantage of the night — with 11:35 left in the period, following a four-point play from Lowe, but a game that had been relatively back and forth up to that point turned quickly.

It started with a layup by Sananda Fru, who kickstarted a 13-0 run that gave the Cardinals a 32-22 lead. The run took fewer than four minutes to materialize and accompanied the start of a terrible shooting stretch for the Cats, who missed 12 of their next 13 shots after Lowe’s four-point play.

Before Aberdeen ended that 1-for-13 skid, Louisville’s lead had ballooned to 46-28, and it appeared the Cards might run the Cats out of the Yum Center before halftime. But Kentucky showed some fight down the stretch of the first half.

Aberdeen’s bucket ignited a UK run in which the Cats made six consecutive shots. A 3-pointer from Aberdeen with around 30 seconds left in the half cut Louisville’s lead to five points, and the Cards took a 53-46 advantage into the halftime locker room.

Otega Oweh, who scored 17 points in UK’s victory over Louisville last season, got off to a horrendous start to this game.

The SEC preseason player of the year turned the ball over on the Wildcats’ first possession and committed a foul on U of L’s first possession. He ended up with three turnovers in the first 5:20 of the game and was subbed out by Pope after that.

After spending more than four minutes on the Kentucky bench, Oweh reentered the game and was called for his second foul not long after that. He stayed in the game, however, to hit a 3-pointer and finish a coast-to-coast layup on consecutive possessions as part of the Wildcats’ run late in the first half.

Oweh fouled out with 17.9 seconds left and UK trailing 95-88. He finished with 12 points and five rebounds. He also had five turnovers on the night.

Kentucky (2-1) will return home for its next game, a date with Eastern Illinois (1-2) at 7 p.m. EST Friday in Rupp Arena. That game will stream on SEC Network+.