Louisville played St.Francis at the KFC Yum! Center on November 24th, 2015 at 7:00 P.M. EST in a game involving the Brooklyn Hoops Invitational.
The Cardinals hosted the Terriers tonight and absolutely destroyed any hope St. Francis had, leading to an 85-41 victory. Damion Lee scored fast and early, but the real winner tonight was how well the Cardinals played on defense.
St. Francis only scored 41 points the entire game while being held to 29 percent shooting for the game. Louisville also outrebounded them 51-24 with 20 offensive rebounds. That’s almost as many rebounds as the Terriers had total. Three Louisville players (Lee, Donovan Mitchell, Raymond Spalding) either scored as much or scored more than the leading scorers on St. Francis. But the odd stat of the night is how everybody except for two players committed at least one turnover for the Cardinals. Rick Pitino probably won’t be happy with that stat, especially when they didn't achieve their goal of 40 deflections tonight as well.
The Cards allowed Tyreek Jewell to hit two three-pointers in a row in the second half until enough was enough. The Cardinals pulled away in the game with a 10-0 run. Chinanu Onuaku was a dominant force in the paint once again as he pulled in 12 rebounds and didn’t commit a single foul. Usually, he is known to draw many fouls but he hasn’t committed any for the past two games. He is looking like the first round draft pick many projected he was at the beginning of the season.
Another stat that stood out was how poor the Cardinals still are from the free throw line. They went 10-of-21 while Spalding missed all three of his. But Spalding made it up by another strong performance off the bench with 12 points. After an impressive game last Saturday against North Florida, Spalding is still a work in progress but he has been the most impressive freshman so far.
It was very evident that St. Francis didn't have the overall talent to compete with Louisville. Louisville was able to dominate both sides of the ball, as they now are 4-0 and the Terriers are 1-3. There was not a bright spot for St. Francis but this is just the beginning of the season and there will be many more games for them to improve.
Louisville will need to hit a better percentage of free throws if they want to evolve as a team this season. The Cards could be ranked by the end of the week if they defeat Saint Louis. Michigan State is looming on their schedule on December 4th but they still have to take care of business Saturday.
Player of the Game: Damion Lee-
The Drexel product was the best player on the court once again as he scored a game-high 21 points and brought down eight rebounds. He needs to keep this up for the Cards next two games against Saint Louis and Michigan State.
Louisville: (Johnson) six points and four rebounds, (Onuaku) eight points and 12 rebounds, (Lee) 21 points and eight rebounds, (Snider) 10 points and two assists, (Lewis) seven points and seven assists, (Mathiang) three points and six rebounds, (Spalding) 12 points and three rebounds, (Mahmoud) seven points and two rebounds, (Mitchell) 11 points and six rebounds.
St.Francis Brooklyn: (Hooper) seven points and four rebounds, (Jewell) 11 points and two rebounds, (Olafsson) five points and two rebounds, (Sanabria) 11 points and three turnovers, (Jonsson) five points and two rebounds, (Lasic) two points and one foul.