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After the University of Kentucky Men’s basketball team lost to the Wisconsin Badgers on Saturday (April 4), hordes of angry fans took to the streets of Lexington. In the end, 31 people were arrested while at Wisconsin the scene was reportedly calm in comparison.

Kentucky fans were shocked as the previously undefeated team looked to be a lock to win it all after its stellar year. Boasting a 38-0 record, nothing suggested that the Wildcats would lose to the Badgers that night. Wisconsin won the game 74-61, and the National College Player Of The Year Frank Kaminsky led all scorers with 20 points.

The Courier-Journal reports that the Kentucky students swarmed Lexington fueled by alcohol and rage, lighting fires and shouting obscene chants against the Badgers. Public intoxication and disorderly conduct were the charges handed down by Lexington police.

More from the Courier-Journal:

More than a thousand crowded onto State Street – the main party hub for Lexington’s rowdy basketball legions – where fans lit dozens of small fires and cursed Wisconsin in profanity-laced chants.

By 2:30 a.m., authorities were reporting 31 arrests for alcohol intoxication and disorderly conduct. Three people had been transported to the hospital with injuries.

Police in riot gear were stationed along the street, but that didn’t prevent fans from lighting clothes on fire and tossing them into the crowd. Some were smashing bottles, but most milled about in the street.

The crowd of mostly white students didn’t face half the media scrutiny of situations where Black people have gathered of late. Granted, the circumstances were different but there was a curious lack of certain descriptors in the press. Still, trying to get “white thugs” to stick to a story like this proves elusive once again.

The city of Lexington’s Facebook feed used the terms “rowdy” and “hostile” to describe the crowd so they get points for at least telling it like it is for once.

Photo: Twitter