By Elizabeth Scanland

The Louisville Cardinals took down the No. 14 Indiana Hoosiers a beatdown win.

Bahamas bullies

The Cards got off to a quick start with a steal and a breakaway layup from Chucky Hepburn. On the very next possession, Hepburn found Terrence Edwards Jr. for a jump shot to put the Cards up 4-0.

Indiana got on the board with a jump shot from Oumar Ballo and was able to tie the game after back-to-back missed shots from Kasean Pryor. However, Louisville quickly got the lead back and then some, doubling up the Hoosiers 12-6.

After IU cut the lead back down to four, Louisville forced a three-minute scoring drought, helping them grow their lead to double-digits.

The Cards had a three-minute drought of their own to end the first half, but they kept the pressure up on defense and didn’t allow a shot from the field to go in during that stretch.

In spite of how physical Indiana was playing, and how many fouls were called on Louisville, the Cards never got to the line in the first half. Nevertheless, Louisville persisted and adjusted to the officiating. Louisville also got hot from deep for the first time this season, hitting 7-of-17 shots from three-point range in the first.

At the half, Louisville led 37-29.

Return of the Doctors of Dunk

Louisville looked like they were going to revert back to the norm in the second half, turning the ball over and giving up a fast break layup to start the period.

But the Cards came back swinging with an 11-0 run to follow that ended with an assist from Hepburn to Noah Waterman for three, a steal by Hepburn then an assist from Hepburn to Pryor for a show-stopping dunk.

From that point on, it was all Cardiac Cards.

Louisville pushed the lead up to 18 points, and then went on a 16-0 run over the course of six minutes. The lead reached 30 points during the run when Edwards Jr. found Khani Rooths for an ally-oop. At one point, the lead grew as large as 38 points.

Louisville cruised to an 89-61 victory.

Louisville was wire-to-wire the better team Wednesday. They came out ready to play, and made key adjustments in-game to help them smother the Hoosiers.

This is Louisville first ranked win since Jan. 6 2021 when they beat Virginia Tech 73-71, snapping a 16-game losing streak to ranked opponents, one of the longest in the country.

Waterman and Hepburn lead the team with 16 points each followed by Pryor who had 14 points in his first start at Louisville.

Hepburn also added 10 assists and seven steals, making him the first Cardinal with 10-plus points and assists and seven-plus steals since Peyton Siva did it against St John’s in 2011.

Louisville is now 4-1 on the season, and advances to the semi-finals of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

Louisville will play rival West Virginia on Thursday at noon.

Photo Courtesy // Mallory Peak, Louisville Athletics