Jan. 2, 2010

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Team Records and Series Notes

• Kentucky is 15-0 while Louisville is 10-4, ending a five-game win streak by the Cardinals.
• Kentucky’s 15-0 start is its best since the 1969-70 squad opened with 15 consecutive wins.
• This is the fifth time in school history that the Wildcats have begun a season with at least 15 straight wins.
• This was the 600 th game of Coach John Calipari’s career. He has tallied a 460-140 (.767) record.
• John Calipari’s 15-0 start is the best start by a UK coach in his augural season in UK history.
• This is the seventh time in John Calipari’s collegiate coaching career that he has had a winning streak of at least 15 games.
• Kentucky leads the Louisville series, 27-14.
• The Wildcats are 165-70 all-time against the current membership of the BIG EAST Conference, including an earlier win this season against Connecticut.
• Today’s attendance of 24,479 is a Rupp Arena attendance record. The previous mark was 24,468 earlier this season vs. North Carolina.
• After a mid-week open date, the Wildcats open Southeastern Conference action on Sat. Jan. 9 at home against Georgia. The game will tip off at 4 p.m. and will be a regionally syndicated telecast on the SEC Network.

First-Half Notes

• Kentucky used the starting lineup of Eric Bledsoe, John Wall, Darius Miller, Patrick Patterson and DeMarcus Cousins for the 13 th time this season.
• Kentucky scored first when Louisville was assessed a technical foul at the 19:15 mark and Cousins made two foul shots.
• Cousins made the first six points of the game, adding a tip-in at 18:58 and a jump hook at 18:22.
• Louisville got on the board at 16:26 with a Samardo Samuels free throw, making the score 6-1.
• Patterson got the game’s first three-pointer at 14:45, giving Kentucky a 9-1 lead. Patterson’s 3-pointer extended UK’s streak to 726 consecutive games with a 3-pointer, the third-longest streak in the nation.
• After 14 misses to open the game, Louisville got its first basket at 10:53 on a Samuels tip-in.
• Kentucky led by as many as 13 points at 18-5. The Wildcats had a drought, however, going without a basket for nine minutes, from 12:04 to 3:03.
• Louisville used a 7-0 spurt to pull within 18-12.
• The Wildcats got a great play with 1:35 to go. After a missed shot was loose in the lane, DeAndre Liggins darted in to tip the ball to Patterson, who swooped in for a dunk, putting UK ahead 25-12.
• In the final eight seconds, Louisville got two foul shots from Reginald Delk and three from Preston Knowles to pull within 27-19 at halftime.
• UK and UofL combined for 46 points in the first half. This was the lowest scoring first half of the Kentucky-Louisville series since Jan. 21, 1922, when the teams combined for 21 points (UK 11-10; UK went on to win that game, 29-22).

Second-Half Notes

• Cousins reached a double-double on a basket with 15:23 remaining.
• Trailing 41-33, Louisville went on a 9-0 run, taking its first lead at 42-41 on a Terrence Jennings foul shot with 9:51 on the clock.
• UK bounced back with eight straight points, the first six by Wall, as the Wildcats went back up 49-42.
• Kentucky increased the lead to 12 at 60-48 with 3:44 to go. Louisville got no closer than seven the rest of the way.

Team Notes

• Louisville missed its first 14 field-goal attempts and Kentucky eventually limited the Cardinals to 32.2 percent from the field.
  • It is the 10 th time in 15 games that UK has held the opponent under 40 percent shooting.
  • It is Louisville’s lowest shooting percentage of the season.
• UK won points in the paint, 40-24.
• The Wildcats also had a significant advantage in points off turnovers, 26-15.

Individual Notes

• DeMarcus Cousins totaled 18 points and 18 rebounds.
  • It is his fourth-consecutive double-double and eighth of the season.
  • Cousins is the first Wildcat to have four-straight double-doubles since Patrick Patterson achieved the feat last season.
  • Cousins tied a UK/UofL series record for rebounds. Louisville’s Bob Lochmueller had 18 boards in 1951.
• Patrick Patterson had 17 points, scoring in double figures in 14 of 15 games this season.
• John Wall scored 17 points, 14 of which came in the second half.
  • When UK trailed 42-41, Wall scored six straight points, two baskets and two foul shots, to put the Wildcats back on top for good.
  • Wall and Eric Bledsoe had four assists each, tying game-high honors.
• Eric Bledsoe tallied 12 points, 10 in the second half.
  • Bledsoe went 6-of-6 at the foul line, all coming in the second half.
  • Bledsoe and John Wall each had a game-high four assists.