Cats use 18-0 run to take down Indiana 90-73

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In their first true road game of the season, the No. 4 Cats (10-0) used a balanced scoring attack, a significant rebounding advantage and one big run to take down the Indiana Hoosiers 90-73.

After leading the Hoosiers by only one point at halftime, the Cats used an 18-0 run in just over a 5-minute span to take control of the game and put Indiana away.

Freshman guard Eric Bledsoe, seen here against Sam Houston State on Nov. 19, led the Cats in scoring with 23 points in UK's 90-73 win over Indiana. Photo by Scott Hannigan | Staff

“For this game for us to win in that fashion, we played well,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “We’re not better than that. That’s like a February effort.”

Indiana came out on fire to begin the game, riding the hot hand of freshman guard Maurice Creek to the tune of 17 points in the first half. Creek, who entered the game as the Big Ten Conference’s leading scorer among freshmen, outscored his per game average of 15.6 in the first half alone, and finished with a career-high 31 points.

Similarly, UK looked to freshman guard Eric Bledsoe for much of the first half. Bledsoe scored 12 of his team-high 23 points in the first half. Bledsoe shot 8-10 from the field for the game and was 4-5 from behind the arc.

“It felt real good knowing that I could shoot the ball and it was going in every time,” Bledsoe said.

Bledsoe’s backcourt freshman teammate John Wall has been the main attraction for the team this season, but on Saturday afternoon in front of a hostile environment, Bledsoe said it felt great to shoot the ball the way he did and show that UK isn’t a one-man team.

“I just wanted to say that John (Wall) isn’t the only one out there playing,” Bledsoe said. “It’s the team helping him too.”

While Bledsoe was one player that rose to the occasion for the Cats, he wasn’t the only one. UK had five players reach double figures in scoring and out-rebounded the Hoosiers 49 to 24, leading to 30 second chance points.

Junior forward Patrick Patterson led the Cats in boards with 11. Patterson completed his fifth double-double of the season, the most in the Southeastern Conference, with 19 points and took many of his shots away from the basket. Patterson said he doesn’t think he could have hit those outside shots last year, but this year has grown to love it so much that he almost likes shooting away from the basket more than battling down low.

“I’m having a lot of fun out there,” Patterson said. “Shooting shots, running that little pick-and-pop, making a move or shooting the ball.

“It’s a lot more fun (playing on the perimeter versus down-low). My opponents probably always play in the paint, never out on me. So if someone drives and throws me the ball it gives me the opportunity to shoot it.”

Just over five minutes into the game, UK found themselves down 17-9 and playing in an arena bursting in pandemonium. Playing in their first true road game of the season, the Cats responded by going on a 10-2 run to even the score at 19. From there, the Cats didn’t trail for the rest of the half.

“Them coming out of the gate and trying to punch us in the mouth was the best thing for our team and for us to learn where we were,” Calipari said. “…Eric Bledsoe wanted to make a statement today and he certainly made it.”

In the second half, Creek came out where he had left off by hitting a 3-pointer to tie the game just 43 seconds into the half. 1:35 later, Indiana junior guard Jeremiah Rivers made a layup to give Indiana their first lead since the 10:23 mark in the first half.

That lead was short lived, however, as Wall slammed home two points just 23 seconds later to give UK the lead back at 49-48. The dunk ignited an 18-0 UK run the Hoosiers couldn’t overcome.

“We learned that we all have a passion to win,” Bledsoe said. “We’re obviously young, but we want to win. Everyone on the team hates to lose.”