LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Antonio Reeves scored 22 of his season-high 30 points in the first half, helping No. 9 Kentucky overcome a slow shooting start and cruise past rival Louisville 95-76 on Thursday night in the annual battle for Bluegrass bragging rights.
“It could be anybody’s night, any given night,” Mitchell added. “You don’t know who it’s going to be. It just so happened to be that it was us.”
Skyy Clark had 20 points and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield added 16 points and 11 rebounds for Louisville (5-7), which looked to follow up Sunday’s rout of Pepperdine by upsetting their archrival. Louisville shot 42% but edged Kentucky 43-42 in the second half and were outrebounded just 37-35.
“I talked to the guys about the first 10 minutes of the game, what it felt like how you had them on their heels a little bit,” Cardinals coach Kenny Payne said, “and I talked about the next 10 minutes of the game and how we stopped sharing the ball. We didn’t get back in transition, and the guy goes off for 22 points.”
BIG Z UPDATE
Kentucky coach John Calipari said he granted permission for 7-footer Zvonimir Ivisic to go home to Croatia for the holiday break, but said nothing had changed in terms of his eligibility status under review by the NCAA.
“He’s going to go home and be back before the Illinois State game (Dec. 29),” Calipari said. “Hopefully, we hear something.”
BIG PICTURE
Kentucky played the pace it wanted and created good looks, and it was just a matter of how soon the shots start falling. Reeves had no such issues, and that set the tone for the Wildcats to follow suit and keep firing as they reached double digits from long range for the fifth time this season.
Louisville: The Cardinals started strong and competed for about 10 minutes, but couldn’t sustain that intensity against a deeper, patient Kentucky squad. They certainly couldn’t match their perimeter shooting, hitting just 4 of 17.
UP NEXT
Kentucky hosts Illinois State on Dec. 29 in its final non-conference prep before opening Southeastern Conference play at Florida on Jan. 6.
Louisville resumes Atlantic Coast Conference play at Virginia on Jan. 3.
