KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2010 / SPORTS
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Wildcat freshmen see double
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Kentucky's DeMarcus Cousins grabs the ball in front of Alabama's Senario Hillman during the second half of Kentucky's 66-55 victory Tuesday. Cousins had 16 points and 13 rebounds for his Kentucky fresh-record 128 double-double.
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LEXINGTON, Ky. — John Wall had 22 points and 10 rebounds for his first double-double, and fellow freshman DeMarc Cousins got his seventh in a row, as No. 3 Kentucky outmuscled Alabama 66-55 Tuesday.
Five of Cousins' rebounds were on the offensive end, while all of Wall's career-high 10 were defense.
With 16 points and 13 rebounds, Cousins extended his UK freshman record with 15 double-doubles. The last Kentucky player to get seven in a row was Jim Andrews, who had a team-record 10 straight in 1973.
With the victory, Kentucky (23-1, 8-1) remained in first place in the Southeastern Conference East Division, one game ahead of Vanderbilt, which beat Tennessee on Tuesday.
Tony Mitchell had 13 points for Alabama (13-11, 3-7).
Cousins got his 10th and 11th points on a one-handed heave in traffic midway through the second half that gave the Wildcats their biggest lead at 46-32.
He got his 10th rebound the next trip down the court, then scored again off Eric Bledsoe's missed 3.
Alabama chipped away at the lead and cut it to 51-45 with 8 minutes left on a jumper by laMychal Green. The Tide matched that sixpoint deficit with under a minute left on Anthony Brock's 3 pointer but got no closer as two free throws by Wall and a dunk by Patrick Patterson helped seal the victory for the Wildcats.
Cousins, who grew up in Mobile, Ala., has acknowledged a sometimes-rocky high school career there, and was heavily recruited by former Alabama coach Mark Gottfried. Instead, he opted to sign the first letter of intent under coach John Calipari at Kentucky.
The 6-foot-11, 260-pound center claimed Monday that the game against the Crimson Tide was "just another game," although he had assigned it far more weight in past statements to the media.
Although Wall lit up the scoreboard at the end, the game started ugly for UK's other freshman pheno- mon. While he came in ranked second in the country in assists, he only managed two in this game — both in the second half. By then, he had racked up six turnovers — many of them sloppy ones.
He also gave the Wildcats a scoring boost, especially in the first half when they needed it most. Other than a wide-open 3 that gave
Kentucky its first lead at 15-13, the rest of Wall's first-half points came under tight pressure from the stingy Alabama defense.
First, Wall faked a pass, drove to the basket and drew Charvez Davis' first foul.
A few minutes later came another three-point play on a similar drive, this one sending Davis to the bench with his third foul.
With Alabama up 11-4 early,
Kentucky scored 13 of the next 15 points. The Wildcats took the lead for good with 5:45 before halftime on Patrick Patterson's dunk off a steal by Bledsoe. Patterson added a 3-pointer seconds before halftime — just Kentucky's second in 11 first-half attempts — to give Kentucky a 31-24 lead.
Alabama's defense was tough,
but Kentucky's was better.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
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Purdue's Robb Humble puts up a layover in front of Michigan State's Marcus Dovle Roe and Raymaran Meyer. Purdue drops Michigan State into a tie at the top of the Big Ten standings.
Boilermakers muddy the Big Ten standings
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EAST LANSING, Mich. E'Twaun Moore scored a season-high 25 points and Jaujan Johnson added 19, lifting No. 6 Purdue to a 76-64 victory against No. 10 Michigan State Tuesday.
The Boilermakers (20-3, 8-3) have won six straight, while the Spartans (19-6, 9-3) have lost three in a row to lose their commanding lead in the Big Ten.
Michigan State trailed by 18 points early in the second half, but pulled within three with 4 and a half minutes left.
The Boilermakers held off the rally to snap a nine-game skid at the Breslin Center and reach the 20-win mark for the fourth straight season.
Michigan State's Chris Allen,
he scored 21 points, made a three-pointer to make it 65-62.
Purdue closed the game with an 11-2 run, making the score lopsided as it was for much of the night.
The loss dropped Michigan State into a first-place tie with Illinois, which won at Wisconsin Tuesday.
Purdue's win puts it in a second-place tie with No. 13 Ohio State.
The Spartans' 12-point loss at home was their biggest since Illinois beat them 81-68 four years ago, and snapped their 18-game winning streak since losing to Penn State more than a year ago.
Purdue, coming off its first victory at Indiana in more than a decade, won at Michigan State for the first time since 1998.