Rajon Rondo scored a career-high 25 points and dished out seven assists as Kentucky dominated rival Louisville from the opening tip in a 73-61 victory on Saturday afternoon in front of 24,432 fans at Rupp Arena.
Wildcat head man Tubby Smith won his 350th game as a head coach. The win was UK?s fifth in its last seven against the Cardinals and they now lead the series 25-12. Louisville, ranked fourth, lost for the first time this year to fall to 6-1 while UK improved to 7-3.
The Wildcats set the tone for the game in the first three-and-a-half minutes as they sprinted out to an 8-0 lead. The defense was smothering, holding the Cardinals to 0-for-7 over that span while blocking two shots and forcing a pair of turnovers.
The defense held up for 40 minutes, holding U of L to just 35 percent shooting from the field and keeping them more than 18 points below their season average.
Rondo, a Louisville native, sparked the offense early with four points and an assist on a Lukasz Obrzut dunk during the opening run. After the initial shock, the Cards rebounded to cut the lead to four.
However, Rondo reeled off six points in 20 seconds and fed Shagari Alleyne for a wide-open dunk in an 8-0 spurt that made it 25-13 with 7:16 remaining in the first half.
Louisville scored a pair of layups to cut the deficit to single-digits before Sheray Thomas went to work. The Montreal, Quebec, native scored seven of his nine first half points to spark a 10-2 UK run with that gave Kentucky its largest first half lead at 35-19.
The Wildcats led by 15 at intermission. It was the most U of L has trailed by at halftime this season.
Thomas joined Rondo as Kentucky?s only players in double figures. He finished with a career-best 11 points on 3-for-6 shooting and a perfect 4-for-4 from the line. He added six rebounds, one shy of a career high.
In the second half, the Cards got on the board first with three free throws, but Joe Crawford threw down a mammoth dunk over two men in red that ignited an eight-point Kentucky outburst. The run, aided by a Rick Pitino technical foul, stretched the UK lead to 22 at 49-27 and forced Louisville into a timeout as the second-largest crowd in Rupp Arena history rocked walls.
Crawford was solid all day for Kentucky, scoring nine points and grabbing seven boards in career-high 31 minutes.
The lead ballooned to 23 on two occasions before the Cards tried to make it interesting. A 9-2 run made it 64-51 with 4:26 remaining. However, Rondo struck again by slicing through the Louisville defense and feeing Obrzut for an easy dunk to quell the run.
Obrzut played his best game in a Kentucky uniform, scoring four points and grabbing a career-high nine rebounds. He also blocked two shots.
Louisville put three players in double figures, led by Juan Palacios? 15. The Cards leading scorer, Taquan Dean, who had scored 20-plus points in his last four outings, was held to 14 points and forced into four turnovers.
Kentucky returns to action on Friday when it faces Iona at Freedom Hall in Louisville. The game, televised by FSN, tips off at 7 p.m.
