Kentucky vs. Louisville: Score and Reaction from 2016-17 Regular Season

The No. 10 Louisville Cardinals (11-1) registered their biggest win of the 2016-17 season, a 73-70 victory over the No. 6 Kentucky Wildcats (10-2) at home inside the KFC Yum! Center on Wednesday.

For Kentucky, it's a deflating result coming so shortly after the team's instant classic against the North Carolina Tar Heels on Saturday.

After scoring 47 points and essentially winning the game with a pair of late three-pointers in his last game, Malik Monk was nearly the hero for the Wildcats again. He hit a three-pointer with 10.4 seconds remaining to bring Kentucky to within a point, 71-70. SEC Network shared a replay of the shot:

Following two made free throws from Donovan Mitchell, Monk had an opportunity to tie the game, but his long-range attempt hit the front iron. Sporting News' Sam Vecenie summed up the thoughts of Cardinals fans who were watching the end of the game:

Monk scored 16 points, but it came on 6-of-17 shooting, including 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.

As a team, Kentucky had an off night on the offensive end. The Wildcats shot 23-of-58 from the field and 19-of-29 from the charity stripe.

De'Aaron Fox was the team's leading scorer (21 points), while Edrice "Bam" Adebayo finished one rebound short of a double-double (11 points and nine rebounds).

Although Louisville got just six points off the bench, four Cardinals starters finished in double figures.

Quentin Snider scored a career-high 22 points and added six rebounds and five assists to his strong all-around performance. ESPN Radio's Bob Valvano thought the junior guard had an added motivation to make an impression:

Deng Adel and Jaylen Johnson chipped in 18 and 14 points, respectively.

Kentucky led by a point, 40-39, at halftime, which the Wildcats should have considered somewhat lucky after they shot 13-of-33 in the first half. They also missed on nine of their 12 three-point attempts.

ESPN Stats & Info compared Wednesday night to Kentucky's win over North Carolina:

Monk has flourished on the big stage, dropping 23 and 24 points, respectively, earlier in the year against Michigan State and UCLA. As SEC Country's Kyle Tucker noted, though, the freshman guard didn't have his shooting stroke against Louisville:

ESPN Upstate's Price Atkinson thought Kentucky's offense as a whole was a problem in the second half:

Neither team could get much breathing room until the Wildcats went on an 11-2 run, which Monk capped off with a layup with 6:54 left in the game. That put Kentucky up 57-53, and the home crowd was beginning to quiet down a bit.

But then the Cardinals went on an 8-0 run, and Yahoo Sports' Pat Forde tweeted that the KFC Yum! Center roared back to life:

Kentucky knocked on the door, but Louisville never trailed over the rest of the game.

The Cardinals nearly threw their lead away in the final minute. Fox closed the gap to three points, 69-66, with 57.1 seconds remaining after knocking down his free throw to complete a three-point play.

On Louisville's next trip up the floor, Adel turned the ball over, and Derek Willis got fouled at the other end. He hit one of his free throws to make it a 69-67 game.

That set up the frenzied final seconds, and Mitchell's two free throws sealed the win for the Cardinals.

After facing two Top 25 teams in the space of five days, Kentucky gets a bit of a break over the next few weeks in terms of the schedule. The Wildcats begin SEC play against Ole Miss on Dec. 29, and they don't play another ranked opponent—No. 22 South Carolina—until Jan. 21.

Head coach John Calipari will likely savor that time to see how his young team responds to this loss.

For Louisville, Wednesday's game was only the start of what will be a brutal stretch over the next week. The Cardinals get No. 12 Virginia, No. 16 Indiana and No. 25 Notre Dame in their next three games.

Considering the team's standing in the Top 25, Louisville doesn't have a lot to prove at this stage of the season, but the Cardinals' upcoming gauntlet will go some way toward shaping whether they're perceived as national title contenders.

Postgame Reaction

"They're better than us right now," Calipari said after the game about the Cardinals, per WDRB's Eric Crawford.

Calipari also shouldered the blame for the loss, according to Kentucky Sports Radio's Matt Jones:

Calipari also tweeted Thursday morning:

Fox is confident the game can be a learning experience for Kentucky, per Tucker:

Snider embraced the spirit of the holidays in the locker room after the game, per Jody Demling of Cardinal Authority:

"They put so much pressure on your defense every possession, but our guys did such a great job, not only defensively, but attacking the rim offensively," Louisville head coach Rick Pitino said, according to Crawford. "We've been, in the past, aggressive on defense. I thought we were impressive on offense."