Louisville Falls to Creighton in NCAA Tournament Opener

LEXINGTON, Ky. - It's a humbling one-and-done showing for the Louisville men's basketball program in their much-awaited return to the NCAA Tournament.

Taking on Creighton in the opening round of the tournament, the Cardinals came up well short, getting blasted by the Bluejays 89-75 on Thursday at Rupp Arena.

The eighth-seeded and No. 10 AP-ranked Cardinals end a successful year one under Pat Kelsey with a 27-8 overall mark, including 18-2 in regular season ACC play. While they made their first appearance in the Big Dance since 2019, Louisville has not won in the NCAA Tournament since taking down Jacksonville State 78-63 in the first round of the 2017 tournament.

Nearly from the opening tip, Creighton had Louisville's defense playing on their heels. The ninth-seeded Bluejays (25-10, 15-5 Big East) abused the Cards in pick-and-roll situations, shooting a blazing 57.1 percent from the field and 11-of-24 on three-point tries.

On the other end of the court, UofL's own offensive efforts paled in comparison. Despite getting Reyne Smith (ankle) back into the mix after a four-game absence, the Cards shot just 8-of-29 from deep, as part of a 42.9 percent effort overall from the floor. Smith also exited the game roughly eight minutes into the second half after re-injuring his ankle.

Chucky Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. scored 22 and 21 points, respectively, but the duo combined to shoot 18-for-45 from the floor. J'Vonne Hadley also finished with 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Creighton's Jamiya Neal and Steven Ashworth scored 29 and 22 points, respectively, while Ryan Kalkbrenner added 14. As a team, the Bluejays also shot 14-of-21 on free throws to an 7-of-8 showing by UofL at the charity stripe.

Louisville did not operate with much efficiency on offense to start the game. They hit seven of their first 13 shot attempts, but then followed that up with 3-for-14 stretch where the ball didn't seem to move with much urgency.

Then on defense, it was an even worse outing right out of the gates. Creighton missed their first five shots of the game, but that was the only defensive presence that Louisville had in the first half.

Following the 0-for-5 start, the Bluejays went on to hit 17 of their remaining 25 attempts in the half - including a 9-of-16 showing on three pointers for the half overall. In fact, seven consecutive threes down the stretch turned a three-point Cardinals deficit with 6:20 left, to 20 points with just over two minutes left in the half.

Louisville was able to hit four of their final seven tries of the half, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Hepburn, but still took a 49-34 deficit into the locker room.

On the other side of the halftime break, while Louisville did manage to hang around throughout most of the second half, they could never truly put themselves within striking distance of Creighton. While threes weren't falling on either side, the Cardinals shot only 16-of-36 in this period while the Bluejays were 15-of-26.

In the final segment, Louisville still had one last chance to make a significant run, trailing just 12 points with under five minutes to go. However, a technical foul on Kelsey resulted in an 8-2 run by Creighton, effectively putting the game on ice.

(Photo of Chucky Hepburn: Aaron Doster - Imagn Images

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