Nov. 6, 2009
Box Score
See basketball page for video and photo galleries of the trip
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Clarion University men's basketball team's trip to Kentucky and the famed Rupp Arena wasn't as much about the final score as it was about the experience the team gained.
"This is an experience our guys will never forget for the rest of their lives," Clarion head coach Ron Righter said following his team's 117-52 loss to the highly ranked Wildcats Friday night. "I am so happy for them."
The final score wasn't what the Golden Eagle players were thinking about after the game.
"I would play them again, this was a great experience," Clarion junior point guard Lloyd Harrison said. "I loved it."
Mike Sherry led the Golden Eagles with 11 points including three 3-pointers while tying for team-high honors with five rebounds. He added two assists and two steals.
"To play in that kind of atmosphere in the Bluegrass, you hear all the folklore about Kentucky basketball, it was awesome," Sherry said. "I don't know how many times I'm going to be able to play in front of a crowd like that. It was a lot of fun playing in an environment like that."
Shameel Carty added 10 points and three boards for Clarion, while Jamar Harrison had nine points and four boards while coming away with a slam dunk on a breakaway following a steal. Lloyd Harrison added six points and a team-best three assists, and David Colbert had five tallies. Paul McQueen tied Sherry with a team-best five rebounds to go with two points.
Kentucky showed why it is ranked fourth in the country in the Associated Press preseason poll shooting 59.2 percent from the floor while limiting Clarion to 23.8 percent on its way to the victory.
"That's as talented a team that plays in his system at this level as I've ever seen," Righter, who spent seven years as an assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level, said. "It is only a matter of time."
Highly touted recruit John Wall, playing in his first game for Kentucky, scored a game-high 27 points on 10 of 14 shooting while adding nine assists to lead the Wildcats, who won both of their exhibition games this year.
Kentucky scored the game's first eight points before baskets by Carty and Lloyd Harrison got Clarion to within four, 8-4, two minutes into the game.
But that was as close as the Golden Eagles got, as Kentucky went on a 29-7 run to take a 37-11 lead halfway through the first half.
"This was a learning experience for us," Righter said. "We've only been practicing a couple of weeks, and this team is so good. They are a very long (tall) team."
Kentucky built its lead to 36, 58-22, at halftime and then got the lead up to 50, 87-37, midway through the second half before a tip-in by Julius Berry and a 3-pointer by Sherry got the lead down to 87-42 with 7:15 left.
But Kentucky closed the game on a 30-10 run to set the final score.
DeMarcus Cousins added 20 points and six rebounds while blocking two shots for the Wildcats.
"He's as good a big man that I've ever played against," Jamar Harrison said.
Patrick Patterson (14 points), Darius Miller (11 points), Darnell Dodson (11 points) and Ramon Harris (11 points) also reached double figures for Kentucky.
NOTES - Prior to the game, Clarion presented first-year Kentucky head coach John Calipari, a 1982 Clarion graduate, with two jerseys bearing his Clarion No. 21 including one with his name on it. Presenting the jersey were Clarion president Dr. Joseph P. Grunenwald, Righter and former Clarion headman Joe DeGregorio, who coached Calipari when he played for the Golden Eagles ... The official attendance was 23,802, by far the largest crowd Clarion has ever played before.
