By Jamie H. Vaught
A sellout crowd of 6,117 at Historic Memorial Coliseum on UK campus definitely got its money worth Saturday night when the state rivals Kentucky and Louisville clashed in a boisterous Top 20 showdown.
The Big Blue Nation at the newly-refurbished arena saw a lot of good things:
--They saw the No. 20 Wildcats overcome the No. 18 Cardinals 71-61 in overtime thriller, breaking their seven-game losing streak in the series. It was UK’s first victory over a ranked opponent since 2022 when it upset then-No. 1 South Carolina in Nashville to capture the SEC Tournament.
“It was loud, and they bought great energy,” UK All-American playmaker Georgia Amoore said of the fans. “But we're going to need that when we come conference time, too.”
On facing Louisville, Amoore said, “I think it was really good for our team tonight to play a quality opponent. It's an in-state rival, but I think that games like this early in the season can really teach us a lot but also show what we're capable of. And I think over time, in a tough situation like that, we really locked in and got good plays, some good offensive rebounds.
"To me, Amelia (Hassett) has prove something that she hadn't proved in the earlier games. She had been a great winner tonight, and that's infectious. So now we know what to build off of, and it's always a great win when you beat Louisville. Super proud of the girls tonight and a lot more to build off for sure, but I'm glad we played a quality opponent this early.”
--The sellout crowd also saw UK’s first-year coach Kenny Brooks, who guided Virginia Tech to 2023 NCAA Final Four, notch his first signature win as the Wildcat coach.
--They saw star Georgia Amoore unbelievably play all 45 minutes of action in leading the Cats, now 4-0, to a key victory while coming up with game-highs 19 points and nine assists. The 5-foot-6 graduate student from Australia has now scored in double-digits in all four games this season.
--They saw UK’s tallest team in program history with eight Wildcats measuring at 6-foot-1 or taller, including 6-foot-7 freshman Clara Silva, who is from Portugal, and 6-foot-5 sophomore Clara Strack.
--They saw Teonni Key, a 6-foot-4 junior who transferred from North Carolina, hit a career-high 17 points while blocking five shots, also a career-high, in 38 minutes of action.
--They saw 5-foot-8 senior guard Dazia Lawrence, who played four seasons at Charlotte, and Strack score 14 and 12 points, respectively.
--They saw 6-foot-3 junior Ameila Hassett, who like Amoore is from Australia, grab a game-high 13 rebounds. (Strack and Key each had nine rebounds.) Hassett also hit critical free throws in the second half, making five of six from the line, to help the Cats win.
--They saw all UK starters play at least 38 minutes. Asked about his team’s physical condition, Brooks said, “This young lady right here (Georgia Amoore) works as hard as anyone. She’s conditioned. She’s going to get help, we’re going to have to play some other players, but I’ve seen her do it. She is able to execute through the fatigue. You can look at her numbers right now and they don’t do her justice. A few of the turnovers were mine, may be fatigue but to play 45 minutes in this type of game with this intensity where they are going to pick you up full court all the time.
"Probably the biggest nightmare she probably had was (Louisville guard) Ja'Leah Williams (who) is probably the best defender in the ACC when she was at Miami. She picked her up full court all the time. It was probably a nightmare for her, but she handled it extremely well. She had a couple of big shots for us. We had a couple of mishaps in the game where we weren’t on the same page, the whole group. But playing 45 minutes with this intensity, this type of game, it’s remarkable.”
U of L coach Jeff Walz praised Amoore. "No matter how rattled we got her, you never saw it on her face," he said. "And that's the sign of a great point guard. I've got a ton of respect for her. I always have."
Interestingly, the Wildcats had no points from the bench. Only three backups saw action briefly with Silva playing only eight minutes.
--The crowd saw the Cats commit 24 turnovers, including eight miscues from Amoore. “I understand and I realize that it is game four,” said Brooks. “We’ve had a scrimmage game against quality opponents but part of it is learning each other. I put them in positions several times and probably five of those turnovers were me just because I called a play which I knew they were going to do certain things but when you can win while you learn, that’s a really good thing.”
Brooks added, “I’m very proud of them, and even when it wasn’t very pretty, they kept fighting, and they found a way, and we’ll continue and use that as momentum.”
--Lastly, the noisy crowd saw the members of UK men’s basketball team cheering for the Cats at the end, and the jubliant fans went home with warm memories.
Kentucky hosts Purdue Fort Wayne Monday, Monday, Nov. 18. The 6 p.m. ET game will be shown on SEC Network+.
Jamie H. Vaught, a longtime sports columnist in Kentucky, is the author of six books about UK basketball, including recently-published “Forever Crazy About The Cats: An Improbable Journey of a Kentucky Sportswriter Overcoming Adversity.” Now a retired college professor who taught at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College in Middlesboro., he is the editor and founder of KySportsStyle.com Magazine. You can follow him on Twitter @KySportsStyle or reach him via email at KySportsStyle@gmail.com.
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