Kentucky opened their season against the Duke Blue Devils inside Madison Square Garden, but came up short 79-71 despite a late rally.

“You have to give credit to Kentucky. They really played good defense and they have depth—they have old depth,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said after defeating Kentucky. “I thought they did a really great job of taking away threes and recovering.”

The Cats’ pace dictated the early portion of the Champions Classic. Kentucky head coach John Calipari’s dream of this squad being a “speed team” is going to be a work in progress this season—at least for the freshmen.

TyTy Washington and Daimion Collins, Kentucky’s two five-star recruits, were playing fast and furious in the first 10 minutes of the first half, which was blatantly not working out for them. Washington was playing too fast, he was doing too much. Collins simply doesn’t have the strength and ability to play at that speed-yet and was taken out after just two minutes.

Duke led Kentucky the entirety of the first half. With the Blue Devils up by seven in the half’s final minute, a much-needed Kellan Grady trey cut the lead to four before both teams headed into the locker room.

Grady finished the first half 3-4 from deep with nine points, all of which came from beyond the arc. The Davidson transfer wouldn’t score in the second half, though.

Sahvir Wheeler impressed as well, leading Kentucky with 12 points, hitting two deep balls an contributing massively to the passing game with five assists at the break. Oscar Tshiebwe also totaled seven offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes.

The first half’s biggest takeaway, however—five different Wildcats found themselves in foul trouble in the first half. Tshiebwe, Washington, Jacob Toppin, Keion Brooks and Davion Mintz all committed two fouls; in a team that can go seven deep into it’s bench, that can be a killer to Calipari’s rotation, and it was.

Two back-to-back baskets for Tshiebwe and a three-pointer from Brooks saw Kentucky take their first lead of the game within the first two minutes of the second half, 42-41. Shortly after, Duke’s star freshman Paolo Banchero went into the locker room to reportedly get fluids due to cramping from dehydration.

Despite this, an 18-4 Duke run later and the Blue Devils were leading Kentucky by 13 halfway through the second half. Nothing was falling for the Cats and the defense was lacking on all levels. Banchero came back and immediately scored back-to-back buckets.

All of a sudden, Duke was ahead 15 and ironically, the Cats looked like wounded dogs. 

Just as quickly, however, Kentucky mounted a comeback on the heels of an 11-0 run. That was broken by a Trevor Keels floater immediately followed by a Banchero and-one to bring Duke’s fan base to their feet.

“You’ve got to fight,” Tshiebwe said post-game. “I was going for everything, I was doing my best. I was trying to win the game, that’s why I was fighting.”

The five-point run proved too much for Kentucky and they would inevitably drop their season opener against the Blue Devils by eight.

Tshiebwe (17) and Wheeler (16) would be the only Kentucky players to end the night in double figures. The West Virginia transfer would also snag a game-high 19 rebounds, over 43 percent of his team’s rebounds. Wheeler also began his Kentucky career with 10 assists while playing 38 of 40 the game’s 40 minutes.

“I loved our fight,” Calipari said. “I loved our competitive spirit. That’s what our program has always been about. Now, some guys are going to step up.”

Kentucky’s next match up will be this Friday for their home opener against Robert Morris at 7 p.m. at Rupp Arena as the Cats look to capture their first victory of the season.