By Josh Abner
The University of Louisville used an excellent defensive performance and a career night from forward Simeon Naydenov to notch a 75-42 victory over East Carolina University on Tuesday night in front of 19,407 fans. The win guaranteed a winning season for Rick Pitino in his first year as head coach of the Cardinals.
Louisville (15-10, 6-7) held ECU (10-16, 3-10) to 26.7 percent shooting on the night, the best field goal defense on the season for the Cardinals. After ECU jumped to an early 8-2 lead, the Cards responded with a 21-6 run over the next twelve minutes of the first half and never looked back.
“That was one of our best defensive games of the season,” said Pitino. “One of our goals was to prevent a team from getting 10 in the ‘arc’ and we hadn’t done thhat all season until tonight.
Naydenov’s 25 points gave him his second career high in the past three games. He was 8 of 12 from the field, with a career high five three-pointers in seven attempts. The sophomore reserve also set career highs in rebounds (6) and blocks (2). His previous career high in points (20) came last week in a 76-72 win over Depaul.
After the game, Pitino commented on Naydenov’s performance of late. “I’ve always had confidence in his shooting but it’s only been recently his defense came along where he wouldn’t hurt us. He just has to keep working on his defense.”
Naydenov agreed with his coach’s assessment. “That’s my focus in practice to work on my defense.”
The Cardinals managed to get ECU’s starters forward Gabriel Mikulas and center Moussa Badiane into foul trouble, allowing the Cardinals to outscore the Pirates 32-6 in the paint. Both players fouled out midway through the second half.
U of L also posted its best free-throw shooting performance of the year, shooting 93.3% on 14-of-15 shooting from the foul line, with Naydenov (4-4) and guard Reece Gaines (7-of-7) perfect from the line.
U of L led 30-18 at halftime and stretched its lead to 39-18 with a 9-0 run to start the second half. A 19-4 run in the final eight minutes gave Louisville the 75-42 victory.
Kenyatta Brown led the visiting Pirates with 13 points..
