Louisville Defeats Boston College to Snap Losing Streak
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step, and the Louisville men's basketball program took that step on Wednesday night.
Entering their matchup with Boston College on a three-game losing streak, the Cardinals were able to turn things back in the right direction, taking down the Eagles 67-54 at the KFC Yum! Center.
After a slide in their recent defensive performance, that side of the court was much more productive for Louisville. They held Boston College to 29.2 percent from the field and 4-20 on three-point attempts, and turned 10 turnovers into 21 points. The lone blemish on that end was allowing 15 BC offensive rebounds.
While the offense for Louisville wasn't pretty at times, it was more than enough, as they shot 46.2 percent from the floor and were 6-18 on threes.
After having to miss the game at Pitt due to an ankle injury, Sydney Curry made his first start since the season opener, and led Louisville in scoring with a 13 point/seven rebound effort. Noah Locke and Jae'Lyn Withers also reached double figures, each scoring 10 points.
With Louisville's recent struggles, head coach Chris Mack employed some major changes to the starting lineup against Boston College. He opted to go with a three-guard/two-center look, with Mason Faulkner making his first career start at Louisville. Locke, El Ellis and Malik Williams made up the rest of the starting five.
The tweak to the lineup certainly helped on the defensive end of the court for the Cardinals to start the game. Over the first half, Boston College shot just 30.6 percent from the floor, and connected on just two of their 11 three point attempts.
As far as offense goes, Louisville was still a tad sluggish, and didn't give them any early opportunity to pull away from the Eagles. They shot 44.0 percent from the floor, hit just one of their seven threes, and coughed up the ball six times before halftime.
Couple this with allowing seven BC offensive rebounds and shooting just 7-14 at the free throw line, and the Cardinals sported just a 30-28 lead heading into the locker room for halftime.
Louisville started the second half strong, coming out with an 8-2 run, but had trouble putting the nail in BC's coffin. The Eagles used a 7-0 run to pull within one, the Cardinals responded with a 6-0 spurt to dictate control again, but could not pull away farther than a three-possession lead for most of the rest of the half.
It wasn't until the final six minutes that Louisville was able to push their lead out to a more comfortable margin. They used a 12-3 segment to lead by as much as sixteen down the stretch, and cruise to their first win in two weeks.
Next up, Louisville will host Notre Dame at the KFC Yum! Center for Russ Smith's jersey retirement. Tip-off against the Fighting Irish is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 22 at 4:00 p.m. EST.
(Photo of James Karnik, Sydney Curry: Jamie Rhodes - USA TODAY Sports)
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