No. 12 Louisville nearly saw a 20-point second-half lead disappear before it held on to beat No. 9 Kentucky 96-88 at home on Tuesday.

Mikel Brown Jr. scored 29 points to lead the Cardinals (3-0), and the five-star point guard had 20 of those in the first half as he finished three away from the school record for a freshman set by LaBradford Smith 37 years ago.

Ryan Conwell added 24 in the win, and Sananda Fru finished with 10.

Denzel Aberdeen scored 26 for the Wildcats (2-1), which also got a dozen each from Otega Oweh and Collin Chandler.

With Donovan Mitchell sitting courtside and the KFC Yum! Center sold out for the first time since Rick Pitino’s last home game as Louisville’s coach, the Cardinals ended a three-game losing streak against their archrival.

Louisville led 78-58 after a pair of free throws by Brown with 12:24 left in regulation. However, the Cardinals shooting legs would disappear as they made just one 3-pointer in 10 tries over an eight-minute stretch.

A Chandler trey cut the Louisville advantage to 88-84 with 4:02 remaining, but Brown responded with a three-point play 70 seconds later, and the Cardinals’ lead was never shorter than five the rest of the way.

The Cardinals led for most of the first half, breaking open a fast-paced start with a 13-0 run over 3:22 to widen their lead to 32-22 on an Aly Khalifa layup with 7:51 before halftime.

The Wildcats went more than five minutes without a bucket, missing seven straight shots and turning the ball over twice as Louisville took control.

Brown extended the lead to 46-28 on a 3-pointer with 4:38 left, but Kentucky worked it down to 51-46 on an Aberdeen trey with :33 left.

Louisville hit on 19-of-37 (51.4%) in the first half, and the team committed just two turnovers during the first 20 minutes. The Cardinals finished with just six on the night.

–Field Level Media