By Dalton Ray–

In front of a light crowd, No. 12 Louisville men’s basketball beat Long Beach State 88-56, moving to 3-0.

Jaylen Johnson led U of L with 14 points and 11 rebounds. The Cardinals shot well from the floor and forced LBS into tough shots. Louisville out-shot the 49ers 45 percent to 30 percent and pulled in 14 more rebounds.

Coach Rick Pitino said the first 11 minutes of the game were the best complete game he has seen this team play, but then the Cards went away from that.

“We went a little bit one-on-one. We broke down a little bit because we had a lead. But that was really special to see, that was a clinic at the offensive end and a clinic at the defense end,” Pitino said.

A dull start to the game, Johnson provided the first spark. The junior drove down the open lane and threw down a thunderous dunk. At the first media break, Louisville led 14-8.

The first sub of the game, Ryan McMahon caused a jump ball against the taller LBS player. McMahon followed with a block. The block led to Quentin Snider finding Johnson in the post.

Early on, Deng Adel showed off his shooting range as he knocked down two jump shots and one 3-pointer in the in the first seven minutes. Donovan Mitchell put in a pair of threes himself.

Anas Mahmoud scored on back-to-back possessions, including a huge put-back dunk off Mitchell’s miss. Louisville began to increase their lead as they went on a 16-0 run to make their lead 30-8.

Louisville used a handful of spurts to jump up on Long Beach State and didn’t look back.

Pitino didn’t take long to use his bench as eight Cardinals hit the floor in the first 12 minutes. U of L showed good ball movement in half court sets, looking for the extra pass on multiple possessions. The Cards also showed the  ability to quickly get on the fast break, looking to press after nearly every defensive stop.

Unlike previous seasons, U of L doesn’t seem to have an issue passing the ball into the post. Ray Spalding, Mahmoud and Johnson all received multiple passes in the post, abling them to finish near the rim.

Fatigue began to set in late in the first half, as both teams struggled to score and made bad passes. Cards led 42 to 27 at the half, and Johnson led U of L with 10 points and seven rebounds. Pitino says Johnson is playing like the staff had hoped he would.

“(Johnson) is doing everything we hoped for and then more,” Pitino said. “He’s going after every single rebound. He considers every shot a pass to him. He’s posting up well . He’s being very physical.”

Louisville started the second half with a 10-3 run, including a 3-pointer by David Levitch. The Cards held a 54-33 lead at the first media timeout of the second half.

The U of L defense gave the 49ers problems all night as the Cards stayed in the passing lanes continuously. Surprisingly, the Cards didn’t press defensively all game.

As the game winded down, Louisville received contribution from everyone. With eight minutes remaining, the Cards had three players in double-figures and another three with at least six points.

Getting the job done on both sides of the floor, Louisville dominated the game for 35 minutes. The Cardinals used their length and size and sat on the lead.

To finish off the game, McMahon found Johnson for a posterizing alley-oop. McMahon followed with a 3-pointer to cap off the 49ers.

U of L now shifts their focus to the Battle 4 Atlantis, where the Cards play Old Dominion on Nov. 23.

Photo by Nancy Hanner / The Louisville Cardinal