After losing to Purdue by 1 point in NKU’s season opener on Nov. 8, the Norse was defeated by the University of Kentucky, 93-63, at Rupp Arena on Nov. 10.

NKU and UK met previously in an exhibition game in 2004, which ended in a 91-73 loss for the Norse. Nov. 10 was NKU’s first time playing UK in a regular season game.

The Wildcats controlled the tip-off game and scored first in the second minute of the first half.

On NKU’s game:

NKU’s starting lineup included transfer student athlete junior guard Jordan Jackson, sophomore forward Jalen Billups, sophomore guard Tyler White, freshman guard Cole Murray and sophomore guard Todd Johnson.

The Norse kept within eight points in the first seven minutes of the game.

At the end of the half, NKU struggled to keep up with a score of 48-22.The Norse had 10 points in the paint and UK ended the half with 20.

NKU’s White led the Norse going into halftime with five points. UK freshman forward Julius Randle scored 11 points in the first half and sophomore forward Willie Cauley-Stein followed with seven.

Dave Bezold, head men’s basketball coach commented that the biggest reason NKU lost to UK was because of their ‘tremendous’ size.

“When I walked out on the floor and saw how big they were, I thought about turning around and going back in the locker room for a little bit,” Bezold said. “They are monsters.”

Billups scored the first point of the second half, bringing the score 48-25. This was Billups’ second game since he was cleared for a heart issue three weeks before the season began.

White helped close the point gap after the half began, bringing the score to 50-30 after scoring five points within the first four minutes.

“This is a whole different atmosphere,” White said. “I’ve never played in front of this many people. Kentucky loves their basketball… It was a great experience.”

Leading scorers for the Norse were Tyler White with 12 points, Jalen Billups with 9 points and 3 rebounds, Daniel Camps with 13 points, and Todd Johnson with 11 points and eight rebounds.

 
On UK’s game:

UK’s starting lineup was composed of freshman guard Andrew Harrison, freshman guard Aaron Harrison, freshman forward James Young, freshman forward Julius Randle and sophomore Willie Cauley-Stein.

Kentucky ended the game with an 11-3 record when playing against teams in the Atlantic Sun Conference.

In the first half, UK scored four points early and never trailed during the entire game. The team then had a 13-0 run which made the score 29-10. The Wildcats led by double digits the rest of the game.

Randle had a double-double in the first half with 11 points and ten rebounds.

The Norse only hit 25 percent of their three pointers against UK, making nine of 35.

“They didn’t make their threes today,” Calipari said. “Against Purdue they were 13 of 26. So we hit them on a good night.”

UK had only seven turnovers during the entire game. NKU finished the half with 15 turnovers and had 22 total.

Randle ended the game as leading scorer with 22 points and 14 rebounds, Aaron had 16 points and his brother Andrew finished with 13. Cauley-Stein ended the game with 11 rebounds.