Louisville Squeaks Past Kentucky, 74-71

It was a rivalry game that lived up to expectations.  Louisville came out strong and Kentucky fought back from a seven point deficit with only a minute to go to tie it at 71 with 22 seconds left in the game, but Edgar Sosa (Cardinals) hit the game-winning 3-pointer with just 2.8 seconds left in the game.  Michael Porter’s (Wildcats) 3-point hurl from half-court with time running out didn’t draw iron as Louisville goes on to win with a final score of 74-71.

UK just made too many bad mistakes and had way too many turnovers, which incidentally, is why they lost due to several bad turnovers in the final minutes of the game and that is what made the difference to help UL come out on top, even though Kentucky gave such a valiant effort in the final minute of the game.

Patrick Patterson (Wildcats) was the top man for Kentucky with 22 points, 15 rebounds, and 4 assists.  Jodie Meeks (Wildcats) was leading scorer with 28 points on 3 for 9 3-point shooting and scored 4 points in the final 40 seconds of the game that helped the Wildcats get back in the game.

Louisville’s top scorer was Terrence Williams with 19 points and 8 rebounds.  Edgar Sosa, the hero for the Cardinals, finished with 18 points and 2 of 4 from 3-point land with none bigger than the final shot.

Final Note:  This was a great game between 2 rival schools and it was a pleasure to watch.  Kentucky really needs to figure out how to cut back on turnovers as they turned the ball over 20+ times in this game.

Rivalry Game, Kentucky at Louisville on Sunday

It is now time to see where Kentucky really stands when they take on the Louisville Cardinals on Sunday, 04 January 2009 at 04:30 p.m.

Rolling into Louisville on a 6 game win streak, the Wildcats are going to have to play hard and not make many mistakes.  If Patrick Patterson and Jodie Meeks play as they have been playing, then UK should be fine, but look for the Cardinals to try to defend the perimeter and shut down Patterson on the inside.  It is going to be a great game and this will really show us where Kentucky stands on the season.

Louisville will come out strong since they lost their last game to UNLV in a close game, so they should be somewhat mad, but Kentucky needs to capitalize on that and make them even more frustrated.

This game should live up to rivalry expectations as both teams seem to be somewhat closely matched to one another, but I predict the Kentucky Wildcats will win in a close game at the end.