The Louisville Cardinals are now 4-0 on the season after an impressive 75-54 win over Western Kentucky Tuesday night at the KFC Yum! Center. WKU drops to 2-2 overall with the loss.
David Johnson led the Cards with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 4 steals. Dre Davis led all scorers with 21 points along with 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Carlik Jones added 18 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.
🎥: Highlights from the Cards 75-54 victory over Western Kentucky.#GoCards pic.twitter.com/kWzE9BqQfz
— Louisville Basketball (@LouisvilleMBB) December 2, 2020
For Western Kentucky, Charles Bassey led the way with 13 points, 15 rebounds and 5 blocks. Taveion Hollingsworth led all Hilltopper scorers with 19 points. No other WKU player scored more than 5 points. The Toppers were held to 43.4 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from three- point range.
Western Kentucky raced out to a 25-17 lead with under 9 minutes left in the first half before Louisville went on a 10-0 run to take a two point lead with 5:10 on the clock. The Cards closed on a 17-4 run to lead 34-29 at the break.
Out of the half, both teams traded buckets and Louisville held a narrow 45-41 lead at the under-12 timeout. from there, the Cards went on a 12-0 run and did not look back on their way to a 21-point victory.
Many people were predicting an upset, but Chris Mack and co. had other ideas. Western Kentucky started out hot and looked like they were going be trouble for Louisville. The Cards made adjustments and closed the first half on a big run before pulling away in the second half.
WKU has a track record of beating power conference opponents. There are plenty of teams that would have panicked after being down in the first half. Louisville really held Charles Bassey in check after the first period and that was the difference.
David Johnson had his best game of the season to date. We already knew about his ability to get to the rim and distribute to his teammates, but Johnson has showed major improvement shooting the basketball through four games. If he keeps that up, it only make Louisville that more dangerous. There are not many backcourt duos in the country better than DJ and Carlik Jones.
Dre Davis continues to impress, and he looks like he be a much bigger contributor in his freshman season than just about anyone would have imagined. Davis is shooting from deep, attacking the rim with confidence and defending at a high level. He might have the best season by a Louisville freshman in quite some time.
I said that Louisville needed to do two things on Tuesday, and they mostly did so successfully. Charles Bassey put up good counting stats but he was largely neutralized in the second half. WKU, who has a reputation of making more free throws than their opponents attempt, shot just 11 times from the line.
Louisville already looks top-20 good. The ceiling looks even higher. It is way too early to start looking down the road, but you have to like what you have seen so far. The season rolls on later this week with another matchup against an elite mid-major.
Up Next
Louisville closes the Wade Houston Tip-off Classic at 2:00 p.m. on Friday with a home matchup against UNC Greensboro
Chris Mack
Dre Davis
David Johnson
