By Harry Barsan
No. 11 Louisville cruised to yet another easy victory, this time against the Jackson State Tigers.
Practice runs
Sananda Fru started the party early with an alley-oop off the pass from Mikel Brown Jr.
Ryan Conwell found enough space for a pair of early threes, his second giving the Cards a 26-11 lead.
Shortly after, Kasean Pryor found his first points since his season ending injury against Oklahoma on a fast-break layup, before finding another bucket shortly after.
Kobe Rodgers got on the board late in the half with a three-ball before the final media timeout.
To end the half, Khani Rooths beat the buzzer on a last-moment dunk.
The Cards went into the half with the lead 55-35.
Conwell led Louisville in the first half with 14 points, nine of those coming from deep.
The Cardinals only had three more field goals than the Tigers, but made 14-of-17 free throws compared to just 1-of-3 from Jackson State.
Comfortable
Fru and Brown connected again to start the half with yet another early dunk. Keeping the momentum, Brown scored six points early with a flurry of free throws and a layup.
Rooths missed his second of two free throws before Conwell tipped the rebound to give the Cards a 36-point lead with just a dozen minutes to go.
With plenty of cushion, the Cards coasted their way down to the final minutes of this game.
As the clock winded down, Rooths grabbed his 10th and final board to collect his first career double-double, much to the delight of the home crowd.
The time bleeding out, Brown’s final bucket brought us over the century mark.
The Cards would add a few more before trumping the Tigers 106-70.
Keep the good times rolling
Louisville outdid their offensive explosion against SC State with yet another 100-bomb to start the season.
While their 106 points Thursday outdoes their previous mark of 104, a slight decrease to 30.3% on three-pointers prevented what could have been a much grander mark.
The big men were big, with 50 points coming in the paint. 15 huge offensive boards give the Cards 12 second chance points, which seems low considering the fact that the Cards dominated the paint.
After a quieter first half, Brown ended with 15 second half points to make it 18 on the night. While his six turnovers made over half of the team’s total, he made up for it on his nine assists, just a dime short of a double-double the hard way.
Rooths scored 16 with his 10 boards to continue his hot start to the year.
Louisville is now 2-0 for the first time since 2020.
The Cards next game and first big challenge of the season will come on Tuesday at home against the infamous Kentucky Wildcats.
Photo Courtesy / David Sutherland / Louisville Athletics
