Louisville struggled all game long against Cleveland State. But the win earned Rick Pitino 700 career wins. This was a horrible offensive performance by both teams, but the defense was great all game long by the Cardinals on Wednesday night.
1st Half: There was offensive struggles all half long for both teams. Cleveland State shot 8-31 from the field. Louisville did not fare much better as they went 10-29 from the field. In addition, the Cardinals only made 5-14 costless throws. Trey Lewis scored 18 points and was the only bright point scoring wise for either team. Montrezl Harrell had 7 points and 7 rebounds for the Cardinals. The score was 26-22 with Louisville leading at half.
2nd: The 2nd half was not any prettier in terms of offense. Both teams shot below 32% for the entire game. The biggest difference was Trey Lewis was only held to 6 points. Chris Jones and Terry Rozier were held to go 6-21 from the field and had 20 points combined. The stat that was really impressive was that Louisville had 11 blocks and the teams had 13 turnovers apiece. Trey Lewis had 24 points for Cleveland State and Montrezl Harrell had 15 points. The final score was 45-33. It wasn't pretty but it was still career win 700 for Pitino.
"Obviously, it wasn't a pretty game," Pitino said afterwards. "You're not going to win it with your offense. It's going to be all about defense. As bad as we were offensively tonight in most phases of the game, we were very good on defense. Very good."
As for winning game number 700, Pitino took it all in stride.
"I hope I'm as lucky to (win) 800, because I remember it as if it was yesterday," Pitino said.
MVP: Montrezl Harrell was the only consistent player for the Cardinals. He had 15 points, 13 rebounds, with zero fouls. He went 6-11 from the field. Montrezl will continue to produce big numbers for the Cardinals.
Next game:
Louisville - Ohio State 12/2/14
Cleveland State @ Marshall 11/28/14