NCAA Basketball Betting – Cardinals vs Wildcats
While the Louisville Cardinals began their Big East campaign with a shocking loss to the No. 12 Georgetown Hoyas, the Wildcats lit it up in Lexington as they destroyed Lamar for its 43rd straight home victory.
Date/Time: 12:00 PM ET, Saturday, December 31, 2011
Venue: Rupp Arena in Lexington, KY.
Broadcast: CBS
Spread: OFF
Over/Under: OFF
No. 4 Louisville’s 20-game home winning streak was snapped in its first loss of the season, 71-68 to Georgetown earlier this week. The Cards’ morale definitely took a hit with this unexpected loss, as they are usually great playing at home.
But they will need to shake it off if they are going to be ready to do battle with No. 3 Kentucky in Lexington on Saturday.
They will look to leader Kyle Kuric, who made it seven straight double-digit point games with 17, and Peyton Siva who added 15 in their loss to Georgetown, to get the team rolling early on once again. But they will need to hang on to any lead they get. Something they haven’t done at of late.
Louisville led this one 35-32 at the half, but then fell apart as the Hoyas used a 24-8 run to take an 11-point lead. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
The Cardinals would rally with an 11-0 spurt that tied the game at 63 with 2:01 to play. However, Otto Porter’s go-ahead put back with 1:42 left, was enough for Georgetown to hang on for the win.
G-town won the battle on the boards with 28 defensive rebounds to only 19 for Louisville, while devastating the Cards from long-range, draining 63 percent from behind the arc.
Meanwhile, over in Lexington Michael Kidd-Gilchrist matched his season high with 18 points as the Wildcats were a runaway train, up at the half 44-28 en route to an easy 86-64 win on Wednesday. It was Gilchrist’s six straight double-digit point game.
Kidd-Gilchrist, was just one of three freshmen who start for Kentucky that made big contributions.
Freshman point guard Marquis Teague hit four 3-pointers and scored 15, while Anthony Davis posted his sixth double-double, with 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds for the Wildcats who have won four straight since losing to Indiana.
Free Pick: Kentucky– The Cardinals suffered their first loss at the KFC Yum Center in a 78-63 setback to instate rival Kentucky on New Year’s Eve last season. And with their current inability to hold a lead, and having to come from behind four times in as many games against lesser opponents, I expect that trend to continue in this one against a focused Kentucky team.
