The Cards have risen, Louisville beats Kentucky in battle of blue grass. Cards 96-88

22,586 plus mostly Louisville fans packed the KFC Yum Center for an unusually early matchup. The Cardinals were set to face their arch rivals, the Wildcats of Kentucky.

Ahead of the first timeout of the game, Cardinals Ryan Conwell and Mikel Brown had scored all of Louisville’s 12 points up to this point in the game.

Moments after the first timeout of the game, McKneely would drill a three from the top of the key, showing why Kelsey came after him. After that, the Wildcats of Kentucky would go on a quick 6-0 run, but that short run by the Wildcats wasn’t fazed as Sananda Fru would score with an emphatic dunk.

Not long after his poster dunk,

Fru would get a block and a goal tend by Kentucky, which would give Wooley the Cardinals a 26-22 lead.

Khani Roots shows his ability outside the paint as he drills a three, with Roots making the shot, this pushes the Cardinals run to 9-0. Conwell makes a cut and draws a foul , gets to the line and drills both from the line, which pushed it to an 11-0 run, 30-22.

At this point in the game, the Cardinals would have seven assists paired with zero turnovers, meanwhile, the Wildcats would have six turnovers paired with six assists.

With the turnovers mounting for the Wildcats in this rivalry game, they’d go scoreless for over four minutes before Lowe would hit a pair from the stripe.

Then insert Hadley’s passing abilities as he would complete back-to-back assists to Wooley & Brown for threes.

The cards were cooking here as their lead against the Wildcats would get up to as much as 18 before the Cats would start to mount a comeback. Funny thing about the number 12 at this point because Louisville was 11-16 while Kentucky was just 3-15.

This is when UK would start to mount a run quickly, trimming the fat of the Cardinals from 18-6. At the 3:47 mark, Louisville was averaging 1.586 points per possession.

The energy of the game would slightly die down a bit as the Cardinals would take a 53-46 lead. Some half-time stats below ⬇️

M. Brown: 20pts/3ast/2reb

R. Conwell: 13pts/1ast

S. Fru: 4pts/1ast/3reb

J. Hadley: 4pts/2ast/4reb

Second half starts off on the right foot for the Cardinals as Conwell and McKneely would drain back-to-back threes. Hadley would pick up his third foul; however, he didn’t let that stop him. Hadley not long after would come down and drain a three, which at this point would be the tenth made three of the night.

“ Louisville makes you make SO many decisions defensively, and there just isn't a good option. Tag and they make quick passes and open threes. Stay home and it's a lob. Go under and you're dead. It's ruthless.” - Words from Rob Dauster

And to be quite honest, up to this point in the game, every word Rob tweeted out was oh so true, and if you can’t admit that something is wrong.

At the first timeout of the game, Kentucky would challenge the out-of-bounds play call, which ended up being upheld in favor of the Cards, thus causing Kentucky to lose the challenge and the timeout.

Right out of the timeout, the Cardinals would drain their 11th three of the game and at this point would be Wooleys second three of the game. Scared moment right after as Brown would shoot a three himself and then go down. He would eventually get up and walk off on his own, which is a great sign.

Flash forward to the 12:36 mark. Louisville and Kelsey would take a timeout and challenge the play call. The call would end up being reversed, giving the timeout, ability to challenge, and get the ball.

Even better news. Brown would check back into the game for #CardNation, Brown would get fouled and head to the strip where he’d make both of his shots pushing his total to 22.

Moments later, Hadley would pick up his 4th foul, timeout would follow as the Cards would lead 78-60.

After the timeout, a flurry of threes from both sides would ensue as it would go, Kentucky, Louisville, Kentucky. To be fair, when you’re facing a team like Louisville that’s shooting the way they are at the rate they are for that matter, it will be hard to beat.

When things switched lineup-wise for the Cats moving to four guards and one big, that’s when they made their long run on the Cardinals trimming the fat again down from 18 to 7 points.

McKneely would moments later pick up his fourth foul, and that’s right when the Cats would trim the lead from 20 down to six with just 4:45 to go in the game.

At the 3:16 mark, Conwell would pick up his fourth foul, sending the Cats to the line. Kentucky would miss the front end again at the stripe, giving the ball back to the Cards and freshman sensation Brown.

Brown would get the ball and take it down in transition and make it by Moreno with this solid gold left hand. And again, not long after, Brown would do his magic again and push the lead to seven.

With one minute left to go, Fru would come up with, like Jay Bilas said, “a winning play with that rebound”. From the second the game tipped off, the Cards were the aggressors in this matchup.

For the first time in a longtime CardNation can rejoice in a moment in time they’ve longed for and deserved for so long. Enjoy this victory fans, the future is very bright for this fan base and team.

“Belief is back in the program”

Stats ⬇️

M. Brown : 29pts/5ast/2reb

R. Conwell : 24pts/2ast/1reb

S. Fru : 10pts/3ast/7reb