“Thunder” Dan Merjerle brought his undefeated Grand Canyon team into the KFC Yum! Center on Saturday afternoon, and the Cards sent the Antelopes back home with a 111-63 loss. Damion Lee led all scorers with 24 points. Here is a look at the full box score.
This game was never close, but there are still some things you can take away from it, or at least I am going to.
-I love how this team put that Michigan State loss behind them so quickly. Too many times, we have seen sloppy or uninspired performances from UofL against weaker opponents. They would get the win, but it just wasn’t that convincing. Today was different. I realize that Grand Canyon isn’t that good, despite their 6-0 record coming into today. They hadn’t played anyone good yet. But still knowing all of that, it was nice to see Louisville come out and play like the loss never happened. The guys looked to be having a lot of fun out there, and we haven’t seen that in a couple years from a team. This group seems to be pretty consistent with that, and it is refreshing to see.
-The Cards absolutely owned the glass, out-rebounding Grand Canyon 55-20. Ray Spalding and Donovan Mitchell each led the team with 7. Damion Lee and Chinanu Onuaku were next up with 6.
-Onuaku only played 18 minutes and was once again in foul trouble. He has five games to figure out how to stay on the floor before Louisville heads to Rupp for the big one against Kentucky.
-Quentin Snider had another very good game with 12 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, and only 2 turnovers. That gives him 31 assists to only 7 turnovers this season, which is great. A lot of us are caught up in Damion Lee’s scoring and also the solid addition of Trey Lewis, and rightfully so. But Quentin Snider is quietly having himself one heck of a season after just 7 games.
I probably can’t go too much more in depth about this one. It was your typical route. Everyone played. Levitch hit 3s. Matz scored. Chinanu made 4 underhanded free throws. Back in the day, this performance would get us all free cheeseburgers from Rally’s. We need to bring that back. Just a good day all around.
Go Cards!
