Indiana All-Stars dominate Kentucky All-Stars in first of two-game series

  • 06/08/2019 6:42 am in

LOUISVILLE, Ky — Right from the start the Indiana All-Stars took it to the Kentucky All-Stars, exploding to a 19-4 lead.

Indiana’s defense was tight, using full-court pressure at the beginning, and it’s offense got out in transition and played at a fast pace, which led to a few dunks for Indiana commit and Mr. Basketball Trayce Jackson-Davis.

The biggest poster of the night came when Jackson-Davis received the ball on a fast break and rose up over Kentucky’s Reid Jolly for a left-handed flush, flexing his muscles at Jolly after the dunk.

“We brought it to them,” Jackson-Davis said. “We were playing great defense all around.”

Kentucky would mount a bit of a comeback midway through the first half, but before the 20 minutes expired Indiana pushed it back up to a 22-point lead. Purdue commit Isaiah Thompson led all scorers at halftime with 14 while Jackson-Davis added nine.

Indiana continued its dominance in the second half, outscoring Kentucky 49-38 to take the 97-64 victory at Bellarmine University.

Jackson-Davis finished with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists, and Indiana commit Armaan Franklin had six points, five rebounds and four assists, but his biggest contribution came from the defensive end by pressuring the Kentucky guards into mistakes.

“We wanted to send a message,” Franklin said. “We know the seniors lost here last year and we didn’t want that to happen to us this year. We wanted a clean sweep. So tonight, we had to set the tone.”

Leading the way for the Indiana All-Stars was Purdue commit Brandon Newman with 18 points, and Thompson ended with 17.

For the Kentucky All-Stars, no player finished in double digits as JJ Kalakon scored nine points. But 2019 Kentucky Mr. Basketball Dontaie Allen did not play as he still recovering from a torn ACL. Allen is committed to Kentucky.

This marks the second win for the Indiana All-Stars, who defeated the Indiana Junior All-Stars Wednesday night at New Castle High School. Indiana and Kentucky will have a rematch at 8 p.m. Saturday night in Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

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