Louisville Falls at Hapless DePaul to Extend Road Losing Streak

CHICAGO - Traveling up to the Windy City for a matchup with former longtime conference foe DePaul, the Louisville men's basketball program woes on the road continued to press onwards, falling 75-68 on Saturday at WinTrust Arena.

The loss to the Blue Demons (2-7, 0-0 Big East) extends the Cardinals' (4-5, 0-1 ACC) road losing streak to 21 consecutive games, their longest since dropping a program record 31-in-a-row from 1937 to 1941. Louisville's last win in a true road environment was a 67-64 decision back on Jan. 2, 2022 at Georgia Tech.

According to the NCAA's NET rankings, the matchup between Louisville and DePaul pit two of the three lowest-ranked power conference teams against one another. The Blue Demons came into the day at 267th in the NET and the Cardinals at 275th, with the only team lower than either being Vanderbilt at 287th.

Despite facing a DePaul team whose only previous win on the season came against South Dakota and whose losses included Purdue Fort Wayne, Long Beach State and North Illinois, Louisville was out-played in almost every facet.

The Cardinals had very little rhythm or flow on offense and struggled to connect on shots, resulting them in shooting just 39.7 percent from the field, 12-of-25 on layups and 5-of-19 on three-point attempts. Meanwhile, their defensive efforts lagged incredibly far behind, allowing the Blue Demons to shoot 51.0 percent overall and 8-of-23 on threes.

Louisville won the turnover battle (10 to 17), but were out-rebounded (32 to 36), and weren't able to get to the free-throw line as much as DePaul (13-of-18 to 17-of-24).

Mike James led Louisville in scoring with 18 points, while Skyy Clark and Ty-Laur Johnson also scored in double figures with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Kaleb Glenn earned his first career start, but played just 13 minutes and finished with only two rebounds. Tre White had seven points on 3-of-13 shooting, but also had a team-high eight rebounds.

For DePaul, they were led by a 22-point effort from Jeremiah Oden. The Blue Demons had four players crack double figures in scoring.

From the jump, Louisville struggled to get much going at all. They had trouble offensively both getting to the free throw line and hitting three point shots, while also having multiple defensive lapses on the other end. Despite going 0-6 from long range and 2-4 at the charity stripe before halftime, it was still a tie game with 5:50 left in the first half.

However, DePaul went into the locker room with a lot of momentum on their sides. The Blue Demons switched to a late zone defense to kill any sort of offensive flow from the Cardinals and produce an influx of turnovers, while the defensive lapses continued to beleaguer the visitors. This resulted in DePaul going on an 18-2 run to end the half, putting Louisville down 38-22 at halftime.

In second half, Louisville was actually able to put themselves in position to jump back in front on several occasions. But every time they got there, they were unable to get over the hump.

A 10-0 run by the Cardinals to get within single digits early in the second was halted by a big three from the Blue Demons. Then after a 15-7 stretch by Louisville in the middle of the half to get within six, DePaul used a quick 7-0 run to get back up by 13.

In the final eight minutes, Louisville couldn't string together the necessary offense and defense to get any closer than within seven points of DePaul, and the Blue Demons led by as much as 16 with 1:53 left.

Next up, Louisville will return to the KFC Yum! Center and kick off a three-game home-stand against Arkansas State. Tip-off against the Red Wolves is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 8:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Mike James: Jared Anderson - Louisville Report)

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