By Gavin Lapaille
The University of Louisville men’s basketball team defeated the University of Kentucky 89-75 at Rupp Arena Saturday.
Senior forward Juan Palacios led the team with 17 points and six rebounds while Jerry Smith added 17 points on 4-for-7 shooting. Terrence Williams finished with 15 points, six rebounds and three blocks. U of L improves to 10-4 on the season, while UK drops to 6-7.
The Wildcats led 31-30 at halftime but a 32-9 Cardinal run to start the second half put the game away for good. Kentucky clawed back to 68-57 with just over three minutes to go but never got closer. U of L shot 56 percent from the field in the second half.
“We went in the second half wanting to jump on them, get the lead and then go back door,” said U of L head coach Rick Pitino. “We missed a couple of lay-ups but we did really well.”
The Cards, who were looking to get back on track after a disappointing home loss to the University of Cincinnati Wednesday, came out with a three match-up defense to shut down the Kentucky attack.
“[Kentucky] has a really good zone attack,” Pitino said. “With the two we always play we would have gotten hurt, because they catch you when you are bumping the forward down the baseline. Then they get the ball in the middle.”
Kentucky senior guard Ramel Bradley led all scorers with 27 points and senior guard Joe Crawford added 19 points in defeat.
The Cards shut down freshman phenom Patrick Patterson, who scored just six points on 3-for-14 shooting.
“We knew going in that we needed to stop him,” senior center David Padgett said. “He is their leading scorer and is probably one of the best freshmen in the country.”
U of L appeared to be playing as a team for the first time all season, with crisp ball movement and strong shot selection. Palacios said this was something that was very important for the team in order to come out with a victory.
“Last week we talked about how this is a team,” Palacios said. “The only way we can survive is if we stick together, and that is what we did.”
With freshman forward Earl Clark out with a suspension, Palacios logged 34 minutes, despite Pitino saying he wasn’t sure if he would play after being sore all week. Pitino said Clark should be available for the match-up with the University of West Virginia this Thursday after what Clark called “a mistake.”
Padgett scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds in his second game back from a knee injury that was originally thought to end his season.
“He is still on one leg,” Pitino said. “He can hardly jump.”
Derrick Caracter was a defensive force, grabbing six rebounds and forcing three steals to go along with six points to gain his coach’s praise at the end of the game.
“I thought Derrick played great,” Pitino said. “He was really ready to play offensively. Fundamentally, he was very sound.”
The Cards will now turn their attention to Big East conference play with West Virginia coming to Freedom Hall Thursday, followed by a trip to Piscataway, N.J. to take on the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights.
“We’ve got a tough road,” Pitino said. “With the schedule we have, when you’re on the road, it never stops being tough.”
