By Aaron Williams–

It was an all-Louisville affair on Thursday night at the KFC Yum! Center as the University of Louisville Cardinals defeated the University of Bellarmine Knights 62-54 in the Cards’ second and final exhibition game.

“I thought it was really good experience for us to play against five perimeter guys. They are about as difficult a team to guard because of their cutting and passing skills and are as good as you’ll find in the country. It was great for us because it takes good communication,” said University of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino.

The Knights, led by junior guard Jeremy Kendle’s 23 points, kept the game close throughout. A three pointer rained in by Kendle with 5:46 left to play brought Bellarmine within three points of the Cardinals but that would be as close as they came to stealing the lead from Louisville. Senior guard Chris Smith and junior forward Jared Swopshire answered Kendle’s three with a combined six points unanswered to put their team safely out of the Knights’ range.

Swopshire’s jumper to help the Cards pull away was just part of his particularly impactful game. The redshirt junior had 14 points on 7-9 shooting and 9 boards. Seeing a healthy and contributing Swop probably boded well for most Cardinal fans, who didn’t get to see the full roster take the court against Bellarmine due to injuries.

Adding to a list that already includes junior forward Stephan Van Treese, junior forward Rakeem Buckles, and most recently, freshman forward Wayne Blackshear was starting junior guard Peyton Siva who sat the game out due to a concussion. Junior guard Mike Marra could also be seen in street clothes on the sideline with an injury of his own.

It fell on players like sophomore guard Russ Smith to fill the spots on the court left by his teammates. Smith was a blur of offensive energy, wooing the crowd with quick and wild layups that he bounced high off the glass. While his high-octane performance earned Smith 13 points on the night, the speed and sometimes carelessness of his play caused the guard to rack up five turnovers as well.

“He’ll do a good job as long as he doesn’t turn it over,” Pitino said, “We can live with his defensive mistakes because he pressures the ball so well, but we can’t live with his turnovers.”

In the front court, freshman forward Chane Behanan continued to assert himself as Pitino’s best freshman in the absence of Blackshear with his own line of 14 points and 9 rebounds. While his offensive skills still leave no question, Behanan and fellow big man sophomore center Gorgui Dieng were tested defensively by the Knights’ knack for quick screens and faster cuts.

“They give a lot of head fakes so that’s one thing that coach put to us in practice was to stay on your feet so that’s one thing that I carried into tonight’s game. When they head fake, be following with them and don’t come out of my stance and keep defending in front of them,” said Behanan. 

Bellarmine’s small line up was more eager to drive on the Cards’ big men face-to-face than to try to back down the looming Dieng and Behanan in a post battle. The pick and pop not only had Louisville’s big men getting low and on their toes, but it also had the whole Cardinal squad communicating with one another in what will be a valuable lesson in working together defensively for the season to come. For sophomore guard Elisha Justice, it was a lesson learned well.

“With so much screening going on, we really had to talk trying to get through those screens and always get to the inside because they like to look for the slips as well,” Justice said.