By Pk Bartley
On Friday night, the University of Louisville men’s basketball team hosted the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in the first round of the Jim Thorpe Classic.
Early in the first half, U of L fell behind seven to nothing. Then junior guard Eric Brown hit two big threes to get U of L back into the game. But the 14-minute mark in the first half, U of L was down 13 to eight.
Then the pair of freshman guards, Larry O’Bannon and Carlos Hurt took over for U of L. “Larry is our best freshman in terms of understanding how to play the game right now,” said head coach Rick Pitino. “But we got a talented freshman group. I’m real happy with their development.”
Led by O’Bannon and Hurt, U of L went on an 11-0 run which brought the Cards out to a 23-13 lead.
O’Bannon believes that Monday night’s exhibition game, in which Pitino played only the young players, helped him tonight, “It helped me with some experience and put me in some situations that helped get my confidence back.”
As the half continued, U of L was hitting nearly every shot they took and forcing UWM into taking bad shots and also turning the ball over. The Cardinals finished the first half with 60% field goal shooting, and 50% three-point shooting in the first half. The Cards pulled out to a 15-point lead but went into the locker room at the break up 43=21.
When the second half began, U of L came out hot. They pushed their lead up to 18 early in the second half at 49-31. A big factor in U of L’s success was forward Ellis Myles. Myles took control of the paint in the second half of the game and became unstoppable on the glass.
The sophomore inside player pulled down 12 rebounds in the second half, and 15 for the game. He also had three blocks and he altered about 10 more shots that were not blocked but missed because of his presence in the middle.
Forward Luke Whitehead played outstanding in the second half. At the 11:19 mark of the second half, Whitehead made a thundering dunk to stop a mini UWM run and made the score 56-42 in U of L’s favor.
“I thought Luke played a great game tonight,” said Pitino. “His energy level was really high and I thought he gave us a big lift.” After the Whitehead dunk, UWM never could get the game close again and U of L cruised to a victory 90-75.
Louisville will play Murray State at 8:00 on Saturday evening in the championship game of the Jim Thorpe Classic. The Racers defeated Virginia Tech 66-63 in the second game on Friday evening.
