Donte Pooleis a key playerfor Murray. AP

Donte Poole knows first-hand how life can alter plans.

Who knows where MurrayState University’s seniorguard might be now if he hadfollowed through with hiscommitment to ColoradoState. Instead, Poole is a keycomponent in one of the great-

est seasons in Ohio Valley Con-ference history.

Murray junior guard IsaiahCanaan, is a virtual lock to benamed the OVC MVP thisweek. But the 14th-rankedRacers (28-1) likely wouldn’tbe this successful without thecontributions of their second-leading scorer (13.9 points pergame). They have likely al-ready secured an at-largeNCAA tournament bid andhave a double-bye into Fri-day’s OVC Tournament semifi-nals in Nashville, Tenn.

The Las Vegas native suf-

fered an injury as a freshmanand was a role player for mostof his career — also goingthrough a coaching change —but he has emerged as an im-portant player in his final year.

Poole’s 20 points lifted theRacers to a 76-72 upset victoryat then-No. 21 Memphis in De-cember, which propelled theminto the rankings. Poole’s 11first-half points gave the Rac-ers a 34-25 halftime lead enroute to beating then-No. 21Saint Mary’s 65-51 on Feb. 18.

Racers bet on Poole to deliverLas Vegas nativenow indispensableBy Michael Grantmgrant@courier-journal.comThe Courier-Journal

See POOLE, Page C5

Sports scores on your cellGo to courier-journal.com/mobileand select your pro or college sport,league, conference and team.Sports

KY

MONDAYFEBRUARY 27, 2012

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Harry Bryan, Sports editor | hbryan@courier-journal.com | 582-4361, phone | 582-7186, fax

After narrowly beating Pittsburgh57-54 Sunday before 22,746 fans at theKFC Yum! Center, University of Louis-ville coach Rick Pitino lamented theslow pace of the game.

The Cardinals, he said, have got toplay faster.

“We keep getting caught in theseslow-down, half-court games, and it’sour own fault because we’re not push-ing the pace enough,” said Pitino, add-ing that the Cards were “not going to getopen looks unless we start sprinting thefloor and beating teams down thecourt.”

The Cards (22-7, 10-6 Big East) al-lowed the Panthers to stay close bymissing from the one place they gotplenty of open looks. U of L shot just 18of 28 from the free-throw line. In the fi-nal minute, Gorgui Dieng and ChaneBehanan each missed the front end of a1-and-1.

That gave Pitt a chance to take thelead with 24 seconds left. Tray Woodalltook an ill-advised jumper that missedbadly with 15 seconds left.

CARDS SAVE FACEDESPITE SLOW PACE

Louisville’s Russ Smith is fouled as he goes up for a shot in the second half Sunday at the KFC Yum! Center. Smith had 18 points off thebench to pace the Cardinals. PHOTOS BY PAT MCDONOGH/THE COURIER-JOURNAL

After narrow win,Pitino talking upfaster game planBy C.L. Browncbrown@courier-journal.comThe Courier-Journal

Pitt’s Tray Woodall, playing tenaciousdefense, knocks the ball away fromU of L point guard Peyton Siva.

SOUTH FLORIDAAT LOUISVILLEWhen: 7 p.m. Wednesday TV: WHAS-11Where: KFC Yum! CenterINSIDE: Cardinal women close out regularseason tonight at Seton Hall. C4See CARDS, Page C4

STARKVILLE, Miss. — A’DiaMathies and Bernisha Pinkettscored 13 points each to lead No.13 Kentucky to a 76-40 victorySunday over Mississippi Stateand clinch the Wildcats’ firstwomen’s regular-season South-eastern Conference title in 30years.

It was a school-record 13thconference win for the Wildcats,despite losing three in a row earli-er this month.

“It’s been a long, long processand journey for them,” Kentuckycoach Matthew Mitchell said.“Starting 10-0, you feel likeyou’re doing good things, andthen comes the 3-game losingstreak. Battling through that, it’smade the end of the season sweet-er.”

Kentucky (24-5, 13-3 SEC)opened the game on a19-7 run andled 41-17 at the half. The Wildcatsshot 40.3 percent (27-of-67) fromthe floor and hit 15-of-22 freethrows.

Pinkett was 5 of 7 from thefield with two 3-pointers, and Sa-marie Walker added 9 points and10 rebounds for the Wildcats.Mathies was 5 of12 from the fieldand had 4 steals to lead the UK de-fense.

Kentucky was to celebrate itsfirst title since 1982 later Sundayon campus.

MSU (14-15, 4-12) shot 26.4 per-cent (14 of 53) from the field in theloss and turned the ball over aseason-high 33 times.

“They play baseline to base-line on offense and defense,”MSU coach Sharron Fanning-Otis said. “I think what happenedto them over the last few weekswas a wakeup call for what youhave to do to compete.”

UK forces an average of 28.4turnovers per game and leads theNCAA in turnover margin.

“You’ve just got to be mentallytough, and focused, and knowthat you’ve got each other’sback,” Mathies said.

Kendra Grant led MSU with 9points.

NO. 13 KENTUCKY 76,MISSISSIPPI STATE 40

Kentucky’s Bernisha Pinkett linesup a shot during the second halfSunday in Starkville, Miss. KERRY

SMITH/AP

SEC title30 yearsin themakingCats’ pressure againmakes differenceAssociated Press

CARDINALS PANTHERS

NO. 17 LOUISVILLE PITTSBURGH

Rain delays DaytonaThe NASCAR season debut waspostponed by rain, and they’ll tryagain today. C2

Hoosiers win on roadIndiana’s stifling defense kept theGophers at bay. C4

INSIDE

Danica Patrick shares herumbrella with Tony Stewart asthey chat on the grid at Daytona.STREETER LECKA/GETTY IMAGES

Back when the University of Louis-ville basketball team was sitting at 2-4 inthe Big East with losses in five out of sev-en games, coach Rick Pitino laid out aplan to get to 10 conference wins and,

presumably, the NCAATournament.

The Cardinals gottheir 10th league victorySunday with a 57-54 es-cape over Pittsburgh inthe KFC Yum! Center,but you didn’t get manygood vibes — not fromthe coaches, nor the play-ers, nor from the stands.

The simple explana-tion is that this team is

building a case for postseason pessi-mism one brick at a time.

If not for an 11-0 individual spurt byRuss Smith in the second half, the Cardsmight well have fallen at home to a Pitts-burgh team that has slipped to depthsthat are difficult to believe.

Half-court offense is like pullingteeth for this bunch. In fact, they’vestarted serving Novacaine in the Yum!Center courtside taverns.

Despite win,Cards mustspeed it up

See CRAWFORD, Page C4

EricCrawford

Time: 02-26-2012 22:04 User: jpatterson PubDate: 02-27-2012 Zone: KY Edition: 1 Page Name: C 1 Color: CyanMagentaYellowBlack