By Derek DeBurger

The Bellarmine Knights were on the wrong end of a focused and hungry Louisville squad.

After head coach Jeff Walz was openly unhappy with the defensive performance against DePaul, the Cards locked down the Knights all game long, holding them to just nine points in the first half and 33 points for the full game. Nine points in a half is the second lowest point total Louisville has held an opponent to through a half; the lowest point total was eight points in the first half of the Bellarmine game last season.

Bellarmine as a team was held to just 21.1% from the field and 19% from three. Bellarmine did shoot 100% from the free throw line, but that was just on five attempts as the Cards only committed 15 team fouls. The Knights have just three assists to an astonishing 28 turnovers — 12 of those steals from Louisville.

Offensively, the Cardinals also had themselves an amazing night, scoring 111 points. Nearly everyone who touched the court seemed unstoppable as the Cards spread the workload on offense. Eight of the 12 players who got minutes Thursday scored double-digit points led by guard Sydney Taylor with 15 points. The number one reason for the efficient performance from the offensive unit is the willingness to share the ball. The Cards had 23 assists to 13 turnovers.

If you could believe it, the Cardinals also dominated on the boards hauling in 51 rebounds to Bellarmine’s 22.

This was a full-scale throttling by the Cards as they came away with a 111-33 victory. This 78-point margin of victory is the largest in program history.

This game bodes extremely well for the rest of the season. The only area you can feasibly criticize the Cards for is the number of turnovers they had in the game, but every other area was nearly flawless. This Bellarmine team played No. 3 UCLA, and only lost by 49 on Sunday.

I know the transitive property is not the best method of determining who is better than who, but it sure does give you confidence going forward.

The Cards are now 3-0 on the young season.

Photo Courtesy // Taris Smith, U of L Athletics