The best moments and Twitter reactions from Big Blue Madness

When it’s Big Blue Madness, basketball season is officially underway in the Bluegrass.

Friday night, a sold-out Rupp Arena welcomed the men’s and women’s teams in their first looks at both of them ahead of their upcoming seasons. It was a raucous crowd, with excitement building for the season.

Advertisement

Women’s Team shows off shooting ahead of highly anticipated season

The Women’s Basketball team tipped off the festivities as they entered the arena. Coming off a Sweet 16 berth last year, Kenny Brooks and the Cats have a lot of momentum coming into this season. The crowd at Rupp Arena clearly concurs, giving each player and Brooks a rousing ovation when they were introduced.

In the “Hot Shot” competition, Team 1 featured Asia Boone, Me’Arah O’Neal, Gabby Brooks, and Savvy Swords. They put up a solid 16 points to tip off the drill. They were followed by Team 2, featuring Clara Strack, Diana Collins, Emily McDonald, and Jemma Amoore. Behind a blistering start, they started draining shots from deep to take the lead.

On Team 3, a fan joined Ajša Sivka, Maddyn Greenway, and Dominika Paurová. They tied Team 1 with 16 points, meaning Team 2 won the drill.

Advertisement

Then came everybody’s favorite: The 3-point shooting contest. Asia Boone tipped it off with a solid 15 points, with Me’Arah O’Neal draining her final two shots to put up 18 points. A confident Emily McDonald made six in a row early and came up just one point shy of the lead with 17. All three advanced to the final round; Boone made all five shots on the final rack to accumulate 20 points.

McDonald responded by hitting her final shot to tie the score. It came down to O’Neal, who made all five from straightaway and then her final two shots on the last rack to tie the score at 20. That brought the tiebreaker to half-court, with a moneyball rack and the first player to make a shot winning the contest. Boone rattled one in after multiple rounds of attempts to take home the trophy.

Mark Pope welcomes back Karl-Anthony Towns

First of all, the thunderous applause started when Malachi Moreno was introduced. Then, things got real. A tall white sheet acted as a…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/best-moments-twitter-reactions-big-015856922.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-10-03 01:58:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.