After a slow start, the No. 11 Louisville Cardinals asserted their dominance in a 87-56 blowout of the visiting Colonels. The Cardinals were led in scoring by Donovan Mitchell (15 points), Quentin Snider (13 points), Tony Hicks added a nice spark off the bench with 10 points, the grad-transfer finally showcased the reason he was so highly regarded coming from Penn.
As said earlier, it was a slow start but it didn’t take much to shake off the week-long rust thanks to a 20-0 run led by Quentin Snider to close the first half. It was a solid team performance in the last of the “tune-up” games before the difficult slate ahead. Mangok Mathiang set a school-record for most rebounds without a point (13 rebounds, 0 points on 0-3 shooting). While this is a nice stat, Mangok’s offense has to improve for this team to reach its full potential. After the first half, the Cards coasted in the second by scoring 51 points but allowed 40 points compared to the 16 allowed at halftime.
All in all, Louisville escaped the first half the schedule with 1 loss to now No. 4 Baylor in the Battle for Atlantis Championship. The Cards next opponent is the No. 6 ranked Kentucky Wildcats. The in-state rivals come into town next Wednesday for a 7pm tip-off. While the Cards have certainly looked improved with each game, this will be the real test heading into conference play.
Go Cards!