Kentucky deals first loss to No. 13 Vanderbilt

Unlike the start of his tenure at Kentucky, Coach Billy Gillispie more than met expectations in his Southeastern Conference debut.

Freshman Patrick Patterson had 23 points and 12 rebounds to lift the Wildcats to a 79-73 double-overtime win over No. 13 Vanderbilt on Saturday at Lexington, Ky., getting back some of the luster missing from the historic program during Gillispie’s rocky start.

“There’s a lot of basketball left,” Gillispie said.

“Not one time have I heard anyone make an excuse for them and not one time have I heard them make an excuse.”

Ramel Bradley added 20 points for the Wildcats (7-7), who gave Gillispie his first win against a ranked opponent this season.

But the Wildcats weren’t spectacular. They allowed the Commodores (16-1, 1-1) to battle back from 16-point second half deficit, then blew an overtime lead before mounting a comeback.

Shan Foster had 20 points for Vanderbilt, which started the day as one of five unbeaten teams in Division I.

A.J. Ogilvy, who scored 16 points for the Commodores, admitted the 23,965 fans at Rupp Arena -- the largest crowd he’s played in front of with Vanderbilt -- had him rattled.

“I think we got taken out of our game a little bit at the start,” he said. “We just tried to recover, but never could.”

Bradley’s jumper in the second overtime put Kentucky ahead, 77-73.

No. 7 Georgetown 72, Connecticut 69 -- The win at Washington gave the Hoyas (13-1, 3-0 Big East) two consecutive victories over the Huskies (11-4, 2-2) for the first time since they won six in a row from 1991 to 1993.

The Huskies were without Coach Jim Calhoun, who skipped an entire game for the first time since February 2003.

Calhoun, who left the sideline during the second half of Connecticut’s win over St. John’s on Tuesday night, was at the arena but stayed in the coaches’ locker room because of what the school called flu-like symptoms.

Oklahoma State 74, Texas Tech 55 -- The Cowboys (10-5) used a 21-2 run midway through the second half to beat the Red Raiders (9-6) and deny Bob Knight his 900th career victory in the Big 12 Conference opener for both teams at Stillwater, Okla.

Obi Muonelo had 21 points for Oklahoma State.