College basketball final: Kentucky Wildcats 95, Louisville Cardinals 76

In the annual in-state college basketball battle, Kentucky travels to Louisville to face the Cardinals at the KFC Yum Center. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. ESPN has the television coverage.

Coached by John Calipari, Kentucky is 8-2 and fresh off an 87-83 victory over North Carolina in the CBS Sports Classic last Saturday. UK is ranked No. 9 in the latest AP Top 25. Coached by Kenny Payne, Louisville is 5-6. The Cardinals defeated Pepperdine 85-63 on Sunday.

For live updates follow us on Twitter/X at @BenRobertsHL for Ben Roberts; @markcstory for Mark Story; @cdrummond97 and @johnclayiv for yours truly.

You can follow a UK basketball X.com list here.

Final: Kentucky 95, Louisville 76

Antonio Reeves scored 30 points to lead Kentucky to a 95-76 win over Louisville on Thursday night at the KFC Yum Center.

Reeves scored 22 points in the first half as the Cats improved to 9-2 on the season. Reed Sheppard produced a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists. Tre Mitchell grabbed 12 rebounds.

The Cats shot 51.5%. Louisville shot 42.4%. UK was 12-for-25 from 3-point range for 48%.

Louisville was led by Skyy Clark with 18 points. The Cardinals are now 5-7 on the season.

Final box

Halftime: Kentucky 53, Louisville 33

▪ Antonio Reeves led UK with 22 points.

▪ First half box

▪ Louisville scores on six straight possessions to cut UK’s lead to 39-30 and Calipari calls time with 4:09 left in half. Louisville’s Brandon Huntley-Hatfield has 12 points and 5 rebounds. UK’s Antonio Reeves has 14 points.

Kentucky scores on seven straight possessions for a 31-18 lead, forcing a Louisville timeout with 8:20 left.

▪ Reed Sheppard leaves the game at 8:35 mark after apparently being hit in the face. He returned at the 6:38 mark.

▪ Louisville’s Brandon Huntley-Hatfield scored eight of Louisville’s first 14 points.

▪ UK’s D.J. Wagner picked up his second foul at the 13:00 mark.

▪ Kentucky missed its first five shots as Louisville jumped to a 5-0 lead.

Officials for Kentucky-Louisville

Officials for Kentucky-Louisville are Ron Groover, Lee Cassell and Pat Adams. Groover worked UK’s 89-84 loss to Kansas in the Champions Classic on Nov. 14 in Chicago. Cassell has not worked a UK game since the Cats’ 79-71 loss to Duke in the Champions Classic on Nov. 9, 2021 in New York. Adams has already worked two Kentucky games this year -- UK’s 86-46 win over New Mexico State in the season opener and the 95-73 win over Miami in the ACC/SEC Challenge. Adams worked six UK games last season, including the Cats’ 86-63 victory over Louisville at Rupp Arena.

There is one thing that can save Kenny Payne’s job at Louisville: Beating Kentucky

What does the Louisville game mean to Reed Sheppard? For him, this is a family thing.

Thanks to Aaron Bradshaw, Kentucky basketball has a chance to replicate a strength

What’s the biggest blowout in the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry? Will this be one of them?

How No. 9 Kentucky and Louisville match up — with a game prediction

It’s a long season, but John Calipari has Kentucky basketball back to ‘Kentucky good’

Get ready for an odd edition of the Kentucky-Louisville rivalry. How weird will it be?