Valpo Falls at No. 9 Kentucky
The Valparaiso University men’s basketball team played in a raucous Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky. on Friday, falling to No. 9 Kentucky 107-59 in the team’s first road game of the season. The Beacons were led in scoring by freshman Rakim Chaney (Rockford, Ill. / Rockford Auburn [212° Sports Academy]).
How It Happened
- Kentucky raced out to a 16-5 edge by the first media timeout.
- The Valpo defense forced a scoring drought of over three minutes including blocked shots by Owen Dease (Evansville, Ind. / Evansville Reitz [Texas A&M Corpus Christi]) and Shon Tupuola (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg [Saint Mary-of-the-Woods]), but couldn’t fully take advantage on the offensive end during that stretch.
- The Wildcats went on a 10-0 run in a minute’s time, boosting the lead up to 30-8 as Valpo took a timeout with 10:34 left in the first half.
- Coming out of that timeout, Valpo started to get better and more patient looks on the offensive end, but Kentucky continued a stretch where it drilled seven of its eight shots and led 37-14 at the 7:27 mark of the opening half.
- Kentucky led 58-26 at halftime. Carter Hopoi (Tauranga, New Zealand / Mount Maunganui College NZ]) had a pair of dunks, while fellow freshman Chaney had a team-high seven points in the opening 20 minutes. The Beacons had some bright moments on defense in the first half with three steals and three blocked shots. The Wildcats shot 64.7 percent in the opening half.
- Good ball movement from the Beacons led to Mark Brown Jr. (South Phoenix, Ariz. / Bella Vista Prep [Snow College]) swishing a 3 early in the second half, but the lead was 70-32 for the Wildcats at the under-16 media timeout.
- A Beacon bright spot came from Sader Servilus (Montreal, Quebec, Canada / Fort Erie International Academy), who nailed his first collegiate triple shortly after checking into the game for the first time midway through the second half.
- Hopoi slammed home his third dunk of the night with under six minutes remaining, the final highlight of the evening for the Beacons.
Inside the Game
- This marked Valpo’s first game against a top-25 opponent since Nov. 17, 2023 at No. 23 Illinois.
- This marked Valpo’s first game against a top-10 opponent since Dec. 7, 2016 at No. 6 Kentucky.
- This was Valpo’s 36th all-time game against a top-10 team and 71st top-25 game all-time.
- Chaney tallied 15 points and handed out five assists, leading the team in both categories.
- Tupuola squeezed a team-high eight boards to go along with seven points.
- Hopoi had nine points on an efficient 4-of-6 shooting.
- Pettigrew corralled six rebounds before fouling out in 20 minutes.
- The Beacons had just 10 turnovers, but Kentucky shot 54.4 percent to Valpo’s 28.4 percent.
Up Next
Valpo (1-1) will close out the BBN Tipoff by hosting Nicholls on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the ARC.