Cleveland St. vs Kentucky, Cancun, Mexico, 24 November 2009

If you like slow-paced, foul-plagued, turnover ridden basketball games, then you would have loved the first half of the basketball game between the Kentucky Wildcats and the Cleveland St. Vikings.  The game got off to a slow start and didn’t get much better before the half was over.  Kentucky finished the half with 12 turnovers, but did manage to shoot 55% from the field.  Cleveland St. wasn’t good at all from the field, shooting just 9 of 32 from the field at 28%.  Ramon Harris (UK) hurt his knee and went back to the locker room before the half.  The half-time score was 35-27 in favor of Kentucky.  On a positive note, the Kentucky Wildcats had nine different players that scored in the first half.

During the second half, the Wildcats were able to pick up the tempo a bit and cut down on turnovers.  Ramon Harris returned to the game and seemed to be okay, but Patrick Patterson (UK) left the game with what looked like an ankle issue.  It didn’t look serious, but Patterson did not return to the game.  John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins led the second half in scoring while Perry Stevenson and Ramon Harris led in rebounds.  The final score of the basketball game was 73-49 in favor of Kentucky.

Top Performers for Kentucky were:
John Wall - 15 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds (6 turnovers)
DeMarcus Cousins - 14 points, 5 rebounds, 3 blocks (3 turnovers)
Patrick Patterson - 9 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block
Darius Miller - 9 points, 7 rebounds
Eric Bledsoe - 7 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists (5 turnovers)
Ramon Harris - 7 rebounds

This game was a different kind of game than we have seen the Kentucky Wildcats play all year.  While they won it by double-digits, the Cats didn’t seem to have that quickness and strength that they’ve had all season.  They are in Cancun, so that may be a bit of distraction for the youngsters that aren’t used to that type of transition.  Darnell Dodson did not play in his second straight game for unknown reasons.  DeAndre Liggins has not played a game all season.  His reason for not playing has been speculated to be either a disciplinary or academic reason, but no official word has been heard.  We hope both players are able to get back into the lineup soon.  Kentucky’s next game is tomorrow (25 November 2009) versus either Stanford or Virginia at 9:30 p.m. (EST) in the Cancun Challenge Championship game.

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