Evansville stuns No. 1 Kentucky
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Evansville showed no fear either of Kentucky or venerable Rupp Arena, where the Wildcats had been perfect at ruining visitors’ dreams of pulling off the seemingly impossible. Until Tuesday night. Not only did the Purple Aces deal No. 1 Kentucky a stunning 67-64 upset, they beat the bigger, stronger Wildcats at their own game throughout. When it was over, Evansville players, coaches and fans whooped it up in a corner of the famed court, making sure they savored the momentous victory.
“To be here is a dream come true,” Evansville sophomore forward DeAndre Williams said. “We took advantage and we made history.”
Sam Cunliffe scored 17 points, including two free throws with 6.8 seconds remaining to silence Kentucky (2-1) and a crowd of 19,101 — most of whom had expected a routine non-conference win from the Wildcats, who were 25-point favorites and earned the top ranking a day earlier.
Those expectations never materialized as Evansville (2-0) controlled the younger Wildcats on both ends.
K.J. Riley added 18 points as the Purple Aces — coached by Walter McCarty, who won a national title with Kentucky in 1996 — pulled off the biggest upset in program history with their first win over a topranked team in three tries.
Evansville led much of the game and answered each Kentucky rally with clutch baskets to grab the lead and then maintain it for the season’s biggest upset.
Kentucky had been 39-0 at home against unranked, nonconference opponents when ranked No. 1 in the AP poll. Evansville, meanwhile, got its first-ever road win over an AP-ranked team.
“Walter and their team deserved to win,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “If we would have somehow pulled it out, it would have been, kind of wouldn’t even have been fair because they fought us the whole game and they were the tougher team.
“He had his team better prepared than I had my team.”
Tyrese Maxey’s layup with 8 seconds remaining got Kentucky within 65-64, but with his teammates locking arms on the bench, Cunliffe stepped to the line and calmly made both ends of the 1-and-1 to seal the victory. The Purple Aces raised their hands and ran around a silent Rupp Arena as the Wildcats slowly walked off.
“We started off saying, OK, we’re going to punch them in the mouth and not let them punch us in the mouth first,” Williams said. “Once we started getting stops, they started turning the ball over, things like that. We saw that and we took advantage.”