By Harry Barsan

No. 6 Louisville remains undefeated as they trump the Eastern Michigan Eagles 87-46.

Slugging ahead

Both teams slugged their way through an early slump, with the two sides knotted at just 4 points apiece through the first media timeout.

That timeout was all it took for Louisville’s offense to start flowing, as the Cards nailed consecutive threes on four straight possessions. The end result was a 15-0 run that was almost exclusive shots from beyond the arc.

The Cards looked equally dominant on defense, forcing EMU into a lot of awkward looking shots, connecting on hardly any of them.

EMU was held to 6-for-31 from the field, thanks to Louisville’s eight first-half blocks.

In fact, Eastern Michigan was so uncomfortable, it took until the 2:30 minute mark for the Eagles to drain their first and, shortly after, second three.

At this point though, the Cards had doubled them up.

The Cards ended the half a bit slow on offense, with their last bucket at just around five minutes to go.

At the break, the Cards led 33-17.

Abracadabra

J’Vonne Hadley halted the offensive slumber with a three to start the half. Isaac McKneely drained his fourth three of the game to make the lead twenty.

After a slow first half, Aly Khalifa unleashed a magical run, scoring or assisting on five straight scores as the crowd went nuts. Khalifa hadn’t even made a three until Monday, draining two in a little over a minute.

His assist to Ryan Conwell gave the Xavier-transfer his first points before going into a media timeout.

Louisville didn’t need to shoot many threes, but they sure made them count when they did.

Khalifa sank yet another three for the Cards’ fourth straight field goal as this game was put on ice.

McKneely knocked down a garbage time three before Cole Sherman outdid him with one of his own to put the crowd in a frenzy.

The Cards came out ahead 87-46.

Feasting

After a slow start, Louisville had no trouble scoring anywhere on the court tonight.

The team shot 42.4% on threes, as well as 48.4% from the field.

McKneely scored a game-high 17 points with three rebounds and a couple assists.

Khalifa did it all off the bench, scoring 11 points, grabbing six boards, dishing out five assists and blocking three shots.

Mikel Brown Jr. couldn’t get it going today, scoring just 11 on a poor 1-for-5 from three. But efforts off the benched from players like Khani Rooths and Adrian Wooley did more than enough to make up for the slack here.

The best production from this Cardinal crew came on defense. The Eagles were held to just two threes the whole game, going the entire second half without making a single one.

Louisville held the EMU to a horrible 16-for-57 from the field. Only two Eagles made more than two field goals, and only two cracked double-digits in points.

Louisville is now 6-0 on the season.

The Cards will ride a dominant win against a solid MAC foe into their Wednesday home-matchup against the NJIT Highlanders.

Photo by Jai’Michael Anderson  / The Louisville Cardinal