9th District Finals
The high school girls basketball 9th District Tournament Championship this Thursday night at Apollo High School has a distinctly Kentucky Wesleyan feel about it.
The game features Daviess County High School, coached by Pat Hume ’92, against Owensboro Catholic High School, coached by Ray Zuberer ’84 and Allison Estes Ross ’02.
Zuberer and Ross both played basketball for KWC. Hume’s mother, Ruthie, is a long-time employee of Kentucky Wesleyan.
If you’re a KWC fan or just a fan of basketball, come out to Apollo High School Thursday night at 7 to get a look at how KWC’s basketball tradition is trickling down to local high school programs.
UK and KWC Basketeers Played Tie Game in 1918
During the Kentucky-Louisville basketball game on Saturday, CBS announcers Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg mentioned that UK’s all-time record included more than 2,000 wins — and one tie.
Who was the tie against? How do you end up with a tie in a basketball game, anyway? Glad you asked.
In 1918, the University of Kentucky and Kentucky Wesleyan College played to a 21-21 tie. According to bigbluehistory.net, UK got off to a 14-4 halftime lead during the game (held in the Kentucky Wesleyan Admin Building in Winchester, Ky.)
KWC came back in the second half to post a 22-21 victory … until officials realized the scorers had counted a foul that had been disallowed (it must have resulted in a free throw). Without the extra point, the game was tied 21-21.
Both teams had already left the building and were dressing elsewhere, so the game stayed a tie.
UK and KWC played 11 times from 1910 to 1938, with UK winning nine of the games. KWC won 21-19 in 1911 and 31-25 in 1927.
This season marks Kentucky Wesleyan’s 100th anniversary of playing basketball.
Below is a copy of the 1918 game write-up from the Lexington Leader:
WILDCATS TIE WITH WESLEYAN
Score is 21 to 21 in good game at Winchester – Referee made an error
The Wildcats of the University of Kentucky journeyed to Winchester last night to meet the representatives of Kentucky Wesleyan College in a basketball contest which resulted in a tie, each team scoring 21 points. The fact that the game had resulted in a tie was not discovered until the teams had left the building and were in the gymnasium dressing.
At first it was thought that Wesleyan had defeated the Wildcats 22 to 21, but the scorers had made a mistake by counting a foul which had been disallowed. Referee Burr, of Wesleyan, signed a statement to this effect which “Daddy” Boles brought home to prove the statement that Wesleyan had not beat the Kentucky basketeers.
The Wildcats were in bad condition for the contest because of the two hard games which were played Thursday and Friday nights with the Tennessee quintet and were tired in the second half.
The first period ended with the Kentucky men in the lead by a score of 14 to 4. Wesleyan returned in the second half and began an advance which the blue and white basketeers could not stop.
Reese and Nunnelly starred for the Wesleyan five and Zerfoss led the scoring for the Wildcats with three field goals and two out of five fouls.
The game was hotly contested in the last half and both teams fought valiantly for a victory.
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