Louisville Routs Cal, Sets Program Record for Conference Wins in a Season

This story will be updated.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Hosting Cal for the penultimate game of the regular season, the Louisville men's basketball program once again cruised to an easy victory, claiming a 85-68 decision on Wednesday night at the KFC Yum! Center.

In just year one under head coach Pat Kelsey, the No. 14 Cardinals (24-6, 17-2 ACC) set a new program record for conference wins in a single season, breaking a tie with the 2008-09 team while members of the Big East. Their current .895 win percentage in conference play is their highest since going 11-1 (.917) in Metro Conference play during the 1992-93 season.

The win over the Golden Bears (13-17, 6-13 ACC) also extends Louisville's winning streak to eight consecutive. The Cardinals have won 18 of their last 19 since opening up the season at 6-5.

One game removed from Chucky Hepburn scoring the seventh-most points in a single game in program history, Terrence Edwards Jr. followed that up with a career night. The guard/forward went 11-of-19 from the field, 7-of-11 on threes and 6-of-8 from the free throw line, scoring a career-high 35 points.

Chucky Hepburn and J'Vonne Hadley also broke double figure scoring, tallying 16 points each. Reyne Smith suffered an ankle injury early in the game, but did eventually return to the bench area.

From a pure shooting standpoint, Louisville was a dominating force over Cal on both ends of the floor. The Cardinals shot 52.9 percent from the field and 11-of-23 on three-point tries, while holding the Golden Bears to just 29.6 percent shooting and 9-of-32 on threes.

It helped make up for other areas where Louisville was less than stellar. They had 12 assists the 14 turnovers, and were out-rebounded for the third straight game, with Cal winning battle on the boards 41-to-39 (and 20-to-6 on offensive rebounds).

Like they have in other recent games, Louisville had a bit of a clunky start out of the gates. Despite Cal only making seven of their first 20 attempts, the Cardinals hit just two of their first 12 field goal attempts of the game. In fact, the Golden Bears held a three-point lead at the 8:03 mark of the half.

After that, Louisville put their foot on Cal's neck. They forced the Golden Bears to miss their final 14 attempts of the half, going over eight minutes without making a field goal. On their end of the court, the Cardinals connected on 11 of their last 17 tries of the period, going on a 25-7 run to take a 41-26 lead into halftime.

Cal scored the first basket of the second half, but that's as close as they were able to get for the remainder of the game. Louisville then fired off a 12-1 run to lead by as much as 24 points just under three minutes into the half.

The Golden Bears found a little bit of a three-point shooting rhythm midway through the half, but were still held to only 14-of-37 shooting for the half. Meanwhile, the Cardinals shot a blazing 14-of-22 with 13 free throws in the period, removing any chance of allowing their visitors to try and mount a comeback.

Next up, Louisville will host Stanford for their final game of the regular season. Tip-off against the Cardinal is scheduled for Saturday, Mar. 8 at 2:00 p.m. EST.

(Photo of Noah Waterman: Jamie Rhodes - Imagn Images)

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