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Kentucky Wildcats Headlines: Davis, Pelicans fall to Warriors in Game 1

By Ethan Conger

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After pushing past the Oklahoma City Thunder into the NBA playoffs last week, Anthony Davis is perhaps faced with the toughest challenge of his young pro career, playing the best team in the league, Golden State, in their first round campaign. Yesterday, Davis’s 35 points weren’t enough to raise the Pelicans to a victory.

"Every time the New Orleans Pelicans pulled closer, Curry came back even better. Curry scored 34 points with an MVP-worthy performance, and the Warriors went up big before holding off the Pelicans 106-99 in their playoff opener Saturday. “I was locked in and focused the whole night,” Curry said. “In those situations, you want to get the crowd back into it. There’s a weird kind of tension, especially in the second half when they made a couple runs. But in the playoffs, you have to expect anything. And whenever you’re on the floor, just try to make an impact.” Klay Thompson added 21 points, and Draymond Green and Andrew Bogut dominated down low as the Warriors looked every bit like the NBA’s top seed — at least for three quarters. They smothered Anthony Davis and the Pelicans early on with the league’s best defense, thrilling a gold shirt-wearing sellout crowd of 19,596 that rocked and roared most of the afternoon. Davis did his best to bring the Pelicans back, shooting 13 of 23 from the floor and grabbing seven rebounds in his playoff debut. Quincy Pondexter scored 20 points and Eric Gordon added 16 for the Pelicans, who shot 42.2 percent and looked overwhelmed by the moment until the final quarter. “I think the whole team was nervous,” Davis said. “This is our first time as a unit in the playoffs, and our pace was good. We were moving fast, but our minds were moving fast as well.”"

A seven point loss isn’t so bad, considering they’re one of the better pro teams of the last decade. Let’s see if Davis can pull off a win or two.

April 18, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles the basketball against New Orleans Pelicans forward Anthony Davis (23) during the third quarter in game one of the first round of the NBA Playoffs at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Pelicans 106-99. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Bat Cats have center stage in the long offseason period between basketball and football, and they’re putting it to good use. Saturday evening, the ‘Cats put the finishing touches on a 3-game sweep of the Tennessee Volunteers.

"Ka’ai Tom knew he would have to deliver for the Wildcats to have the kind of season they wanted to have. He did on Saturday. “Obviously he was impactful today,” UK head coach Gary Henderson said. “Clearly.” With Tom anchoring the lineup in the No. 3 spot, Kentucky baseball completed a sweep of rival Tennessee for the first time in Cliff Hagan Stadium history. The Cats won 5-3, due in large part to Tom’s big afternoon. The junior right fielder had three hits in four at-bats, driving in three runs. “It does help us get back on track in the conference,” Tom said. “We lost a lot of close games and it’s good to finally pull one off.” Tom got the scoring started for UK (22-16, 8-9 Southeastern Conference) in the bottom of the first inning. With one out, he followed up an Evan White double with one of his own to stake the Cats to a 1-0 lead. Two innings later, Tom was in the middle of a rally to retake the lead in the third inning, but he would save his biggest blow for later. The game seemed destined for a tight finish before Tom stepped to the plate in the fifth inning with Kyle Barrett standing on third base. Needing a fly ball to send Barrett home with one out, Tom came up with just that. His fly ball, however, landed well into the parking lot past the right-field fence for his third homerun of the season. “That was probably most clean I’ve ever caught the ball,” Tom said. For the season, Tom is batting a team-best .377 with 42 runs batted in, though he fell short of his second cycle of the season when he flew out to center in the seventh inning. The Kaneohe, Hawaii, native has had an uneven run through conference play, hitting just .257 entering Saturday’s season finale against the Volunteers. That makes his performance all the more encouraging as UK enters the final month of the regular season. “He’s a real presence in the box,” Henderson said. “He’s a threat. He’s an all-league kid and everybody’s aware that he’s a really accomplished hitter. He’s a guy that if he doesn’t do well his first at-bat you can count on him to give you a solid at-bat in the box, a solid approach throughout the game.” JaVon Shelby would follow Tom’s two-run shot with another long ball for UK’s first back-to-back homers since 2012 and the Cats wouldn’t look back. Wildcat pitchers turned in another solid outing, with Andrew Nelson, Zach Logue, Zach Strecker, Logan Salow and Spencer Jack combining to allow just three runs on nine hits."

The Wildcats will play Xavier Tuesday night at Cliff Hagan Stadium.

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