Louisville Is King of Kentucky

Kentucky’s yearlong regular-season winning streak is over, and Louisville has started a streak of its own against the Wildcats.

No. 20 Louisville limited No. 2 Kentucky to one field goal over the final 5:47 in a 65-56 victory Saturday at Lexington, Ky., ending the Wildcats’ regular-season winning streak at 27 games.

Otis George had 13 points and eight rebounds for Louisville (7-1), which won at Rupp Arena for the first time since 1997-98, a season in which Kentucky won the NCAA title. The Cardinals have won seven in a row since a loss to Iowa.

Kentucky (7-1) had not lost a regular-season game since last Dec. 28, when the Wildcats fell at Louisville, 81-63.

“Kentucky is a great basketball team that just happened to lose tonight,” Louisville Coach Rick Pitino said. “We were very fortunate to win.

“We had that special moment that happens once in a lifetime.”

Pitino is 2-1 against Kentucky, where he coached for eight seasons and won a national championship in 1996.

When the game was over, Pitino and current Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith hugged at midcourt.

“This is just a great feeling,” Louisville’s Luke Whitehead said. “Coach Pitino already told us how much this game means to him. He said it meant a lot to us, him and the city and it just makes us so happy.”

The Cardinals are 20-1 in December under Pitino the last three seasons, with the loss coming to Kentucky.

Larry O’Bannon and Whitehead each had 11 points and Francisco Garcia, the Cardinals’ leading scorer for the season, had all of his 10 points in the second half. Louisville made 15 of 16 free-throw attempts

“I’m disappointed in our play,” Smith said. “We seemed to once again not play with the poise and the patience that we needed to.”

Both teams entered the game ranked, the first time that happened since Dec. 31, 1996.

Louisville’s win also ended a strange streak -- the winner of the Kentucky-Louisville football game had lost the basketball game between the schools each year since the football rivalry was resumed in 1994. Louisville won this year’s football game, 40-24.

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No. 10 Saint Joseph’s 73, Pacific 55 -- Delonte West scored 22 points and Jameer Nelson had 15 in the Hawks’ victory at Philadelphia.

Saint Joseph’s (9-0) is off to its best start since winning its first 10 games in 1964-65. The Hawks won their first seven games last season before being upset by Pacific.

The Tigers (4-6) trailed by only five points midway through the second half despite a sloppy game in which they committed 18 turnovers.

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No. 13 Florida 109, Eastern Kentucky 63 -- Anthony Roberson scored 22 points at Gainesville, Fla., to lead the Gators (8-2).

Florida shot 64.6% to finish above 60% for the third time this season.

The Gators also had 13 steals in their third consecutive victory since dropping from the No. 1 ranking after consecutive losses to Maryland and Louisville.

Eastern Kentucky (3-6) had lost 101-72 to Kentucky on Monday.

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No. 14 Cincinnati 83, Miami of Ohio 63 -- James White and Field Williams each scored 14 points and the Bearcats continued to have their best start in four seasons at Cincinnati.

Cincinnati (8-0) pulled out to a 20-point lead in the first half, but couldn’t shake Miami (4-5) until midway through the second half.

Danny Horace and Chet Mason led the RedHawks with 10 points apiece.

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No. 16 Pittsburgh 52, New Hampshire 38 -- Julius Page scored 19 points and the Panthers (12-0) matched the 1929-30 team for best start in school history with the victory over the Wildcats (3-6) at Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh has won 32 consecutive home games, the longest active streak in Division I, and is 26-0 at the Petersen Events Center.

Carl Krauser, the Panthers’ leading scorer with a 15.6-point average, did not play because of a groin injury.

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No. 19 Wisconsin 71, Ohio 48 -- Alando Tucker scored a season-high 22 points, Zach Morley had a career-high 14 points and the Badgers (8-1) wore down the Bobcats (3-7) in the Rock-N-Roll Shootout at Cleveland.

Devin Harris had 14 points for Wisconsin.

Thomas Stephens had 13 points to lead Ohio.

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No. 22 Purdue 82, Evansville 62 -- Kenneth Lowe scored 17 points to lead the Boilermakers (9-2) at West Lafayette, Ind.

Matt Kiefer had 14 points for Purdue, which won after a disappointing one-point loss to Southern Methodist last Sunday.

Kyle Anslinger led Evansville (1-7) with 16 points.

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OTHER GAMES

Richard Midgley made his first six shots and scored 21 points, and California (4-4) shot 61% in an 85-66 victory over Columbia (2-6) in the Office Depot Golden Bear Classic at Berkeley. ... Bobby Jones scored 19 points as bigger and more athletic Washington (4-3) rolled to a 92-81 victory over San Diego State (7-5) at San Diego. The Huskies had lost three in a row, all by double digits. ... Terry Pettis scored 15 points to lead defensive-minded Fresno State (4-5) to a 52-43 victory over San Francisco (8-5) at Fresno.

Lawrence Roberts scored nine of his game-high 15 points in the second half to lead Mississippi State (10-0) to a 72-50 victory over Tulane (5-4) at New Orleans.... Jaime Lloreda and Brandon Bass scored 22 points apiece to help Louisiana State (8-0) to a 78-62 victory over Alabama Birmingham (6-3) at New Orleans.