The Louisville men’s basketball team dropped it’s second home game of the season on Friday night in a 62-55 loss to DePaul inside the KFC Yum! Center. Louisville is now 6-3 on the season. DePaul improves to 8-1.
Malik Williams led the Cards with a career high 22 points and 8 rebounds on 10-15 shooting from the field. Matt Cross was the only other Cardinal in double figures with 11 points. Louisville shot just 31.1 percent from the field and 21.1 percent from three.
For DePaul, David Jones led all players with 33 points and 14 rebounds on the night. No other Blue Demon scored more than 8 points. DePaul shot 42.4 percent from the field and just 17.6 percent from long range.
Louisville got out to an early 11-6 lead before the first media timeout. The Cards stalled from there, scoring just four points in the next 9:46 of game time to find themselves down 16-15 with 6:23 to go in the half. DePaul’s lead got all the way to 26-17 at the 4:06 mark before Louisville closed the half on a 12-0 run, taking a 29-26 advantage into the break.
Out of the half, Louisville extended its lead to 38-29 within the first three minutes. The Cards experienced another offensive drought and led by just three points at the under-12 timeout. With 7:56 on the clock it was 46-46. DePaul held a 56-50 lead at final media timeout and never trailed in the last five minutes of the game.
Altogether, this was a terrifying performance from a Louisville team that had shown real promise over the past couple weeks. DePaul did nothing spectacular on Friday night. This loss is 100-percent on Chris Mack and his team. To score just 17 points in the final 17:06 of the game is unacceptable. It’s time to start asking some tough questions about the direction of this team moving forward.
We have yet to see their ceiling, but we certainly know the floor at this point for Louisville. Things can change, but the season is over a month old and the Cards have yet to convince anyone that they are a team that should be taken seriously.
Up Next:
Louisville is back at home on Tuesday night for an early 6:00 p.m. matchup with Southeastern Louisiana.
