Highlights, Photos and Notes: Louisville 96, Kentucky 88

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville men's basketball program is back on the winning side of the Battle of the Bluegrass, holding off a comeback effort from arch rival Kentucky You can also follow Deputy Editor Matthew McGavic at and snap a three-game losing streak in the series.

In this story:

Team Notes:

• KEY FIRST HALF RUN: Trailing 22-19 in the middle of the first half, Louisville went on a 13-0 run propelling them to a 32-22 lead. The Cards’ largest lead in first half was 18. UofL took a 53-46 advantage into the break, with a 20 first half points from Brown Jr.
• KEY SECOND HALF RUN: UofL led 78-58 with 12 minutes left in the second half, its largest lead of the game. Kentucky spent the next eight minutes on a 26-10 run, cutting the Louisville lead to 88-84 with 4:02 left to play. Louisville would hold on for a 96-88 win.
• Louisville shot 31 of 69 (44.9%) from the field, 13 of 40 (32.5%) from deep and 21 of 31 (67.7%) from the free throw line.
• Kentucky shot 32 of 68 (47.0%) from the field, 13 of 40 (32.5%) from three and 12 of 16 (75.0%) from the charity stripe.
• Eight Louisville players recorded points in the contest (Sananda Fru, Mikel Brown Jr., Ryan Conwell, Isaac McKneely, Adrian Wooley, Aly Khalifa, Kobe Rodgers and J’Vonne Hadley).

Player Notes:

• Mikel Brown, Jr. led the team in scoring by registering a career-high 29 points, going 10-for-11 from the free throw line. He broke his previous career-high of 18 points, with 20 points in the first half, becoming the first Louisville freshman to score 20 points in a half since Edgar Sosa in 2007.
• J'Vonne Hadley finished the game with nine points, a team-high eight rebounds and three assists. Hadley went 4-for-6 from the floor.
• Ryan Conwell was the second leading scorer for the Cardinals, finishing with 24 points. He added four makes from deep and tacked on eight free throws.
• Isaac McKneely finished with nine points and five rebounds. All of his points coming from behind the arc, going 3-for-7 from three-point range
• Sananda Fru had 10 points to go along with seven boards. Fru was perfect on the offensive end tonight, going 4-for-4 from the field and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe.

Gallery:

Photos courtesy of Jeff Faughender (Courier Journal), Jamie Rhodes (Imagn Images) and Matt Stone (Courier Journal)

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(Photo of J'Vonne Hadley: Matt Stone - Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

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