Evansville Defeats Kentucky

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Evansville Defeats Kentucky

If you don’t already know, an unranked Evansville team beat the number one ranked Kentucky team Tuesday, November 12. This game was the first time that an unranked team beat the number one ranked team since 2015 when UCLA beat number one ranked Kentucky. These are the secrets to how Evansville did it. The game started off back and forth until Evansville started to pull away with a first half lead of 29-22 with 3:08 left. Kentucky would mount a small comeback led by Immanuel Quickley and Tyrese Maxey, but they were only able to bring their team to within four points of the Aces at the end of the first half. After the break, the Aces bumped their lead up to seven in the first three minutes of the second half. For the remainder of the second half, the Wildcats stayed within a ten point deficit. It was only at the end of the game when Evansville’s shooting percentage (38.3) was slightly better than Kentucky’s (37) to help the Aces hold onto the slight lead they had. With nine seconds left at the end of the game the Wildcats were able to claw their way back to within a point. But it’s when Kentucky had to foul to stop the clock, that Evansville’s Sam Cunliffe came up clutch to hit two free throws and stretched the lead to three points. In a last second desperation heave, Tyrese Maxey tried to make a deep three to force the game to overtime, but the freshman came up short as did the Wildcats. The main reason the Wildcats lost this game was because of Evansville’s shooting and the two key players that had points in the double digits. Evansville had a three point percentage of 30 percent and Kentucky only had a three point percentage of 23.5 percent. In almost every category, and every shooting category, Evansvile was the better team. Field goal percentage, Evansville, 38.3, Kentucky, 37. Free throw percentage, Evansville, 92.3, Kentucky, 80. Rebounds, Evansville, 38, Kentucky, 35. Assists, Evansville, 10, Kentucky, 6. Steals, Evansville, 2, Kentucky, 6. Blocks, Evasnsville, 0, Kentucky, 2. Turnovers, Evansville, 14, Kentucky, 13. That just goes to show you that the few categories that Kentucky did have the greater numbers in, did not affect the result of the game. The result of the game relied more on Evansville hitting shots and getting an early lead to boost their confidence and let them know they had a chance to win.

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