Young’s own-basket shot highlight of Cats exhibition victory

Kentucky Wildcats guard James Young (1) dunks the ball at UK Basketball vs. Montevallo at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., on Monday, November 4, 2013. Photo by Emily Wuetcher

By Nick Gray | Basketball beat writer

[email protected]

Monday’s 95-72 win for UK over the University of Montevallo was more of the same for the Cats. UK head coach John Calipari yelled at missed defensive assignments and UK led the duration of the game.

But with 14:17 left in the game, a Montevallo shot was blocked, sending the ball free along the sidelines, where freshman guard James Young sprinted, trying to retrieve the ball for UK  before it fell out of bounds.

Young did save it – into the basket, giving the Falcons two points and drawing a standing ovation from the Rupp Arena crowd of 20,039.

“It’s a great teaching lesson to tell them don’t ever throw it back at your basket,” Calipari said after the game. “When you’re coaching this many young guys, it made me laugh.”

The shot shot up within minutes on social media and YouTube. Young’s teammates said they were appalled.

“It was like a ‘wow’ moment. It was a crazy phenomenon,” sophomore forward Alex Poythress said.

Sophomore forward Willie Cauley-Stein agreed, saying he “knew from the get-go” it wouldn’t turn out well.

In the 23-point victory over Montevallo, freshman forward Julius Randle scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for the Cats in the win, both team highs.

Freshman guard Andrew Harrison sat out for the second consecutive game because of a bone bruise in his right knee.

Senior guard Jarrod Polson got the start alongside freshman guards Aaron Harrison and Young, Randle and Cauley-Stein.

Montevallo began the game on a 9-2 run in the first 2:30, which caused Calipari to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, UK went on 14-0 run to take the lead.

Young stole the ball and dunked with one hand ahead of everyone on the court, putting the Cats up for good at 11-9.

The Falcons shot 47.1 percent from the floor in the first half.

“They had a lot of practice this weekend, and so I got to their legs a little bit,” Calipari said of the high percentage. “But that’s fine. I thought we played better than we did last game, and that’s all I’m asking.”

Montevallo senior guard Troran Brown scored 30 points to pace the Falcons.

Eight Cats played 11 or more minutes, including the five starters, senior forward Jon Hood, sophomore forward Alex Poythress and freshman center Dakari Johnson.

UK’s season opener is three days away against the University of North Carolina at Asheville at 7 p.m. on Friday at Rupp Arena.

Calipari’s attitude is that there is still a lot of work to be done by the Cats and not much time for them to work and learn.

“The bus is taking us to the games and the plane, and we’ve got to play games,” Calipari said. “So we’re going to have to learn as we go.”­