By Dalton Ray–

With the 102-71 win over Texas Southern, coach Rick Pitino notched his 400th win as Louisville’s head men’s basketball coach. The win is U of L’s fourth straight win, putting the team at 9-1.

Quentin Snider finished with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists. Jaylen Johnson finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. VJ King added 13 points. Six Cardinals scored in double-digits, including all five starters.

Postgame comments

Pitino’s opening statement: “We had to battle a lot of foul trouble tonight. We made a run with an interesting line-up in so that was good to see. Happy with the victory. When you can learn lessons in victory rather than defeat, it helps you a lot.”

Pitino on his takeaways from the game: “On the offensive end, I saw a lot of things that were better. You score 100 points, only turn the ball over nine times and pass the ball well. From that standpoint, we did a better job. Defensively, we have a long way to go. We’re stopping people but we’re not boxing them out.”

Pitino on the slow start: “I didn’t open with the press, which usually gets our flow going, because they were playing with two 5-foot-8 guards. We missed some open shots and that’s why I put Ryan (McMahon) in the game. We’re playing really good defense but we’re not boxing out. We’ll get it, it’s great to learn this lesson tonight. They pride themselves in defense and they saw someone get 26 rebounds. That’s going to bother them and they’re going to do something to change that.”

First half 

Louisville shot poorly from the field and earned their first field goal on a goaltending call. With the team shooting 1-for-9, Snider’s 3-pointer tied the game seven with under 15 to play.

Texas Southern’s athletic play seemed to catch the Cardinals off guard. The Tigers converted four alley-oops during the first 10 minutes. Over that stretch, Louisville shot 5-for-23 from the field.

Texas Southern’s Derrick Griffin pitched in six points and eight rebounds in eight minutes of play. His high energy gave the Tigers the edge in the first half.

Fans stayed quite in the first 20 minutes awaiting some type of spark from the Cardinals. Louisville missed easy shots, allowed offensive rebounds and played lazy defense, garnering only disgruntled complaints from fans.

Matz Stockman scored four straight points, pushing the Louisville lead to 10 points. Snider tried to push the tempo for Louisville but was the lone Cardinal playing at a fast pace.  

Over the final two minutes, teams exchanged 3-pointers as David Levitch and Snider knocked down a pair for U of L. King’s jumper just before the half extended Louisville’s lead to 14 at the break.

Halftime stats

Snider, King and Johnson led Louisville in scoring as they combined for 29 points. Deng Adel and Donovan Mitchell struggled in the first half, combining for 1-for-9 shooting from the field.

Texas Southern was on par with Louisville in most categories but trailed in two important ones. U of L converted on 10-of-12 of their free throws and only committed five turnovers.

The Tigers went 4-for-9 at the line with nine turnovers. Demontra Jefferson had 10 points and four assists in the first half. Dulani Robinson scored 11 while Griffin pulled down 12 rebounds.

Second half

Baskets by Mangok Mathiang, Johnson and Mitchell gave Louisville a 16-point lead two minutes into the half. The Tigers went on a 6-0 run but King’s three ended the stretch.

Louisville’s offense struggled from the 16-minute mark through the 12-minute mark. Only scoring seven points, sloppy play plagued the Cardinals. Missing open shots, turning the ball over and getting into a shootout with Texas Southern halted the Louisville offense.

Adel hit back-to-back shots, pushing the Louisville lead to 17. Mitchell found Mathiang for the slam with 9:30 left to give Louisville a 20-point lead.

Adel knocked in another 3-pointer as Louisville made their lead 26. The Cardinals didn’t slow up despite their big lead.

Tony Hicks scored for the first time in nearly a month during the second half. After Ryan McMahon’s three gave Louisville the 27-point lead, the Cards then kicked it into cruise control with three minutes to play.

Mitchell and Adel responded well in the second half after a poor first. Mitchell ended wth 12 points, five rebounds and three assists with 10 points, three rebounds and assists coming in the second half. Adel scored all 11 points in the second half and added six rebounds.

Griffin ended with 15 points and 26 rebounds for Texas Southern. Jefferson added 27 points.

Photo by Laurel Slaughter / The Louisville Cardinal