Louisville Cardinals guard J'Vonne Hadley (1) drives by Kentucky Wildcats guard Otega Oweh (00) for a lay-up as the Cards go up on Kentucky in the first half during the UofL-UK annual rivalry game at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky Nov. 11, 2025. Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Highlights, Photos and Notes: Louisville 96, Kentucky 88

Originally posted on Louisville Cardinals on SI
By Matthew McGavic | Last updated Nov 12, 2025 6:00 AM ET

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 to capture a 96-88 win and snap a three-game losing streak in the series.

The Atlantic Coast Conference put together a highlight tape of the matchup, which you can see here:

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.