18 arrests, 8 transported to hospital during post-game celebrations

By Anne Halliwell, Will Wright, Cheyene Miller

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Celebrations complete with torched couches and broken beer bottles led to 18 arrests for disorderly conduct and alcohol intoxication, and eight people being transported to Chandler Hospital on Saturday night on and around State Street, according to Susan Straub, Lexington press secretary. Crowds of UK Basketball fans rushed to State Street shortly after the Cats’ victory over the University of Notre Dame.

Small fires dotted the crowd, which was thousands of people large. Police lined front yards and extinguished large couch fires, which were circled by chanting fans. Other items that were burned included shirts and sweaters that came off the backs of the celebrating fans, as well as chairs and empty beer boxes.

Interior design junior Alaina Bauer and her friend Judy Zimmerman, who graduated from UK with a degree in kinesiology, came to State Street after watching the game from their home off Elizabeth Avenue.

“We watch it together in a more calm setting … so we can focus on the actual game. Then we kind of sneak out of our house to come down here to see … the scene,” Bauer said. “The appeal is maybe being a part of something bigger than us. To an extent, it makes you feel a part of something — but would you say it’s terrifying, to some extent?”

Bauer and Zimmerman said they enjoyed the celebratory aspects of State Street, like the “C-A-T-S” chants, rather than the burning debris that lit up the crowd as they watched from a house’s balcony.

“We like the energy,” Bauer said. “We don’t like the bottles being thrown.”

Some students wish to only witness the debauchery on State Street rather than participate in it.

“I’m not going to destroy anything, but if something’s being destroyed, I’m going to watch,” said civil engineering freshman Matt Gerber, who noted that he and his friends were quick to make the walk to State Street after UK sealed the game.

“As soon as we won, we gave our group three minutes to get ready. We said, ‘you got three minutes,’” Gerber said.

Street cleaning trucks moved up and down the State Street-neighborhood roads after 2 a.m., when the crowd was largely dispersed.

“Crowd was obviously larger tonight, but once again the celebrations were relatively calm,” according to the City of Lexington’s Twitter page. “Compared to most weekends in Lexington, there was no substantial increase in run volume for Police and Fire because of the celebration.”