By Mike Gilpatrick–
The No. 13 Louisville Cardinals wrapped up their exhibition schedule by beating the Bellarmine Knights 81-60, ending a lot closer than starting out.
The Cardinals dominated the first half. Scoring was kicked off by Donovan Mitchell, whom dropped in two-consecutive threes. The rest of the offense shot 18-for-34 and 7-for-14 from three.
The best performance of this half was from graduate transfer Tony Hicks. Hicks had 10 points, two rebounds and one assist in eight minutes. On defense, the Cards held the Knights to 17 points in the half. Ten of the points were off of free-throws. All-American honorable mention Rusty Troutman was also held to four points, all from free-throws.
The second half was a different story. Bellarmine outscored Louisville 43-32, with the Knights going 19 for 35. Two Bellarmine players scored in the double digits. Louisville played decently in this half, going 13-for-31 with only two threes. The top scorer of the half was Mitchell.
Key performances
Deng Adel and Mitchell led the team with 13 points each. Hicks ended with 12 points.
Mitchell and Quentin Snider led the team with three 3-point field goals. Snider ended with 11 points, four assists and three rebounds.
Jaylen Johnson was a rebounding machine in this contest. He managed to pick up 11 rebounds, seven offensively and four defensively. Johnson also pitched in six points.
Takeaways
Louisville showed that they can play defense, but are inexperienced.
“The first half [defense] was excellent,” Rick Pitino said. “It just shows you the inexperience of this team. They didn’t know how to play with a lead. We’ve got a lot of weaknesses that we need to work on. But inexperience is the one thing that you don’t get until you go through it, and we’ve got to go through it.”
Louisville opens up the regular season Nov. 11 against Evansville. The game is at 7 p.m.
Photo by Nancy Hanner / The Louisville Cardinal
