The Wildcats Drop Fourth Straight To Notre Dame
By Peggy Gilligan
The starting lineup was changed for today’s game with Devin Askew sitting and Davion Mintz starting the game. Terrence Clarke took the reins as the point guard. Clarke seemed very at ease running the point today. The first half was a nightmare for the Cats resulting in a 48-26 halftime deficit.
The only bright spot was that the turnover problem that has plagued the team in the previous game was down to only 7 at the break. The other lingering problem remained the same as Kentucky was only able to make one of thirteen three point shots for 8% for the first half. On the other hand Notre Dame hit six of eleven for 55% on threes. At one point in the early
going Notre Dame hit 5-3 point shots in a row and the majority of these were wide open shots.
The second half was quite different and should give Big Blue Nation some hope for the rest of the season. Olivier Sarr started the scoring in the second half followed by a three point shot from Terrence Clarke to get the score deficit down to seventeen. I’m not sure what was said at half time but the team listened and followed the instructions from Calipari because what happened in the second was truly amazing.
The defense played by Kentucky in the second half was the best 20 minutes of the season. The scoring went thru Olivier Sarr for the most part with a few three point shots made by the team. The team defense played by Kentucky held Notre Dame scoreless for an eight minute stretch and forced eleven turnovers. Even though the last shot missed, Kentucky showed some grit and determination today which should lead to good things in the games to come.
Next up for the Wildcats is UCLA in the CBS Classic to be played in Cleveland on Saturday December 19th. So as Coach Cal said in the post game zoom: “There is hope now”