Kentucky vs. Louisville: Wildcats get elusive win vs. Top 25 team

LEXINGTON, Ky.-Kentucky did not have enough Julius Randle. A lot of times, it had too much James Young. In the end, though, the Wildcats had just the right amount of both to claim their first victory this season over a Top 25 team.

The No. 18 Wildcats (10-3) previously had fallen against No. 2 Michigan State, No. 20 Baylor and No. 18 North Carolina, but Saturday afternoon at Rupp Arena they dictated the action for most of the game and punished their fiercest rival, the Louisville Cardinals, 73-66.

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Whether it was the rivalry or the home crowd or perhaps the dozen games' worth of experience the freshman-laden Kentucky team had gained, the Wildcats could reasonably be said to have dominated after falling in an 8-0 hole at the start.

Louisville guard Chris Jones, in his first year after transferring from junior college, scored 15 points in the first half to keep the Cards (11-2) competitive, and All-American Russ Smith was sensational in the 10 minutes that surrounded the halftime break. But Kentucky tightened its defense on both down the stretch and allowed neither to truly influence the action.

Jones finished with 18 points. Smith scored only two points in the final 15 minutes and ended with 19.

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Kentucky sophomore forward Alex Poythress scored only seven points, but he received a well-deserved moment in the spotlight when point guard Andrew Harrison beat a lapsing shot-clock inside the final 2 minutes by driving the left side and dishing to Poythress for a loud slam dunk. He had to handle most of the minutes surrendered by Randle, the team's leading scorer, and with Poythress on the floor the Wildcats were plus-20.

With 17 points in the bank-on a mere eight field goal attempts-Randle carried as much of the UK offense as his teammates would allow through the first half. It wasn't that burden that got to him, but early in the second half he went up to challenge a Louisville shot and landed oddly, then asked the Kentucky bench to substitute for him.

He left the bench area and returned to the locker room, and CBS reported that he was dealing with cramping. His affliction became more obvious after a brief return, when he asked to leave the floor during the middle of a UK possession. UK trainers spent time adjacent to the bench massaging Randle's legs to alleviate the discomfort.

Randle returned again with 12:08 left in the game. It didn't last. He was credited with only four minutes played in the second half and did not score or rebound.

Although the Wildcats enjoyed more success generally than they had in their most difficult contests to date, there still was a disconnect in their offense that led them to shoot only 42.9 percent from the field in the first half. The issue was freshman wing James Young, who entered the game shooting 39.7 percent from the floor and commenced demonstrating that he'd come by that number honestly.

He missed his first half-dozen shots from the floor; a few of them were forced drives, a few one-pass jumpers. When he finally consented to wait until the ball had been reversed at least once before firing, with 10:39 left in the first half, he connected for his first basket. That didn't change his approach, though. He finished the half only 3-of-13.

So even though Randle was 7-of-8 as part of a UK inside game that shot 82 percent in the first 20 minutes, the Wildcats held only a 41-36 lead. The Wildcats did not have the cushion they might have had, perhaps should have had, as they were forced to deal without their offensive anchor through so much of the second half. They had to scramble for nearly every point.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino opted to turn loose Smith following the halftime break. Smith had operated most of the first half at point guard, but after he'd thrown down a most ridiculous, vicious dunk on Randle late in the first half, Pitino determined it would be wiser to use him as the team's primary offensive option.

Smith scored seven points in the first five minutes, but Calipari switched the 6-6 Young onto him and ordered his players to trap Smith off of every ball screen. When 7-0 Willie Cauley-Stein stepped up to join Young in a hard double-team with 7:21 left, they forced a turnover from Smith that led to a layup from Aaron Harrison and a 60-53 lead.

Smith reverted to distributor on the next trip and found Final Four hero Luke Hancock for a right corner 3-pointer that made it a 4-point game, but Young ran a great curl up from the baseline off a staggered double-screen and nailed a beautiful catch-and-shoot 3-pointer that pumped the lead right back to seven.

Young and Andrew Harrison finished the game with a team-high 18 points each.

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