Louisville tops UK

Published 12:00 am Monday, December 30, 2002

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – If Rick Pitino took any extra satisfaction from his new team beating his old team, he barely showed it.

As the final seconds ticked off in Louisville’s 81-63 upset of No. 14 Kentucky at Freedom Hall on Saturday, Pitino got up from his crouch on the sideline and calmly walked to midcourt to shake hands with Wildcats coach Tubby Smith, his former assistant.

"Everyone will say, ‘Well, he’s holding it in,’ but I love beating Kentucky as much as I love beating anybody else," said Pitino, who coached the Wildcats from 1989-97 and led them to the 1996 national championship.

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Kentucky transfer Marvin Stone scored 16 points and Ellis Myles had 11 points and 14 rebounds for Louisville (7-1), which snapped a three-game losing streak to its rival.

The Wildcats led 33-30 at halftime, but Erik Brown, who’s from Lexington, made a 3-pointer with 17:03 left to initiate a 17-4 run by the Cardinals.

Kentucky opened the game by shooting 9-of-17 from the field, then missed 19 of its next 24 shots, including nine of the first 10 at the start of the second half.

Pitino avenged a 20-point loss to the Wildcats in his much-ballyhooed return to Rupp Arena last December. Fans screamed insults at him from the start in Kentucky’s 82-62 victory.