I know everyone is pacing the floor waiting for Valentine's Day tip-off against Florida this afternoon, but we have a massive No. 1 versus No. 2 showdown happening right now that deserves your attention.
The top-ranked Kentucky Rifle team is currently in Morgantown battling No. 2 West Virginia, and if the early results are any indication, they are on a mission to prove who runs this sport.
Kentucky rifle live score update
The smallbore portion of the match just wrapped up, and the Wildcats have taken an early lead over the Mountaineers, 2362 to 2357.
If you want to know why the Cats are winning, look no further than Braden Peiser. Peiser just turned in an absolute masterclass of a performance, shooting a staggering 599 with 46 centers. To put that into perspective, the next closest shooter in the entire building was West Virginia's Griffin Lake with a 592. At this elite level, a seven-point gap between first and second place is massive. And even bigger when you consider that this West Virginia team is number 2 in the country.
Sofia Ceccarello (589) and Martin Voss (588) also turned in huge scores to help build the lead. You can follow along live by clicking here.
Just a small part of a hopefully historic season
We shouldn't be too surprised by this dominance. This is a team that just broke the all-time NCAA team scoring record a couple of weeks ago with a 4762 against Akron.
Head coach Harry Mullins knew his team was ready for the hostile road environment.
"After a good couple weeks of training, we are excited to get back into the range and compete this weekend against a really good West Virginia squad," Mullins said before the match. "This will be one of the few times this season where we get to all compete together, and that adds a different element to this all."
So far, they are handling that element perfectly. The air rifle portion of the competition is getting underway now. Keep one eye on the match by clicking here for the live targets, and let's go get a top-two road win to start the day off right for BBN.