FINAL: No. 9 Kentucky's comeback effort falls short in 96-88 road loss to No. 12 Louisville

Kentucky had the chance to pull off an incredible comeback down the stretch, but missed opportunities in the closing moments cost the Wildcats a rivalry win.

The No. 9 Wildcats (2-1) came up short on Tuesday night in the KFC Yum! Center, falling to the No. 12 Louisville Cardinals (3-0) by a final score 96-88 in the hardwood edition of the Battle of the Bluegrass. Louisville freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr. was the best player on the floor, dropping 29 points on 8-16 shooting. He was aided by 24 points from teammate Ryan Conwell as Louisville shot 13-40 from deep for the game.

Kentucky trailed by as many as 20 points in the second half, but cut the deficit down to as few as four in the final minutes before running out of gas. Denzel Aberdeen led the way for the ‘Cats with 26 points and seven rebounds, while Collin Chandler and Otega Oweh (who both fouled out) chipped in 12 points each. UK still shot 47.1 percent from the floor and went 12-34 from deep, but 14 turnovers, which Louisville turned into 19 points the other way, ended up being the difference.

The Wildcats came into this game with one of the nation’s best defenses, but Louisville’s offense was a massive step up from Nicholls and Valparaiso — there is clearly plenty of room for improvement on that end of the floor for Mark Pope‘s squad.

The start of this game was like watching a tennis match, both team sprinting up and down the floor at will. Louisville struck first out of the gate with a 4-0 run before Kentucky responded right away with a 5-0 run. It was a back-and-forth affair over the next several minutes, but turnovers were killing the ‘Cats. UK had six of them before Louisville was forced into one. The Cardinals would land the first kill shot of the evening, an 11-0 run going into the under-8 media timeout as Kentucky’s shot selection was growing increasingly poor.

Louisville continued to pour it on, taking a 41-28 lead that forced Pope to call a timeout. The lead would grow to as many as 18 points with roughly four minutes until halftime, but Kentucky would finally land a counter punch. An 8-0 run from the ‘Cats cut the UL lead down to double-digits. Kentucky would make seven of its final eight shots going into halftime, but gave up a bucket right before the buzzer as Louisville held a 53-46 advantage at the intermission.

Brown led all scorers with an impressive 20 first-half points for Louisville. Conwell chipped in 13 for the Cards while Aberdeen paced Kentucky with 13 points of his own. Both teams were shooting 49 percent or better from the field and 35 percent or better from deep. Defense was non-existent for most of the opening 20 minutes, but UK had the momentum going into the second half.

The second half adjustments for UK didn’t show up early on out of the locker room. Louisville immediately hit a three to go back in front by double-digits. The Cardinals continued to rain down triples and push the pace, extending its lead back to 15 points just five minutes into the half. Turnovers would once again destroy any rhythm Kentucky was trying to build as UL went up by 20 points before we could hit the 12-minute mark.

Kentucky would make one final push for the comeback. A 9-3 run for the ‘Cats, fueled by an and-one from Brandon Garrison plus back-to-back triples from Kam Williams and Chandler, made it an 81-67 game in favor of UL as we dipped under 10 minutes left in regulation. A couple more threes from the ‘Cats, capped off by a Williams put-back slam, trimmed the deficit to just eight points. UK keeping digging in deep. A Malachi Moreno slam made it a six-point game with under five minutes on the clock.

Chandler kept the momentum going a couple of possessions later, nailing a three-pointer that made it an 88-84 Louisville lead going into the final media timeout. But Jaland Lowe would miss the front end of a one-and-one at the free throw line, which Brown followed up on the other end with an and-one for the Cards. That was where Kentucky’s comeback attempt would end as Louisville ran out the clock en route to the victory.