Shorthanded Louisville Overcomes Early Sluggishness to Blow Out Montana

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - A few days removed from getting humbled at Tennessee, the Louisville men's basketball returned home for a matchup with Montana, overcoming a sluggish start to eventually secure an 94-54 blowout win on Saturday at the KFC Yum! Center.

The No. 11 Cardinals (10-2, 0-0 ACC) bounce back from their 83-62 loss this past Tuesday, which was their third-worst loss under second year head coach Pat Kelsey. Their emphatic win over the Grizzlies (6-7, 0-0 Big Sky) also came with guards Mikel Brown Jr. (lower back) and Kobe Rodgers (concussion protocol) sidelined due to injury.

Without their starting and backup point guards, Louisville certainly had trouble at times getting into a rhythm on the offensive end. Their 14 turnovers were the second-most this season, and they made just five of their first 28 three-point attempts before finishing 12-of-34 from deep.

Fortunately, they made up for it by imposing their will inside the arc and on defense. The Cardinals shot 22-of-31 on two-point attempts, helping them post a 52.3 field goal percentage for the game overall. Additionally, they held Montana to only 32.1 percent shooting, forced their second-most turnovers of the season with 19, and out-rebounded them 48-to-25.

Five Cards finished in double figures scoring, led by an 18-point and eight-rebound performance by Sananda Fru. Isaac McKneely broke out of his shooting slump for 16 points, Ryan Conwell notched 14 points, J'Vonna Hadley added 13 points and Khani Rooths came off the bench for 10.

On the offensive end, Louisville opened up the game looking disjointed and at times borderline disinterested. They had nearly as many turnovers (8) as assists (10) in the first half, and struggled early to establish any sort of flow on that side of the court. While they wound up shooting 16-of-33 before halftime, this included 5-of-18 on threes - and they opened up 3-of-14 on such shots.

Fortunately, unlike at Tennessee, they didn't let their clunky offense impact their defense. Montana was held to 6-of-24 in the first half, including a 1-of-11 stretch to end the period, and turned it over 13 times. This helped Louisville end the half on a 23-4 run, including scoring the final 17 points, to head into halftime with a 42-20 lead.

That defensive-fueled momentum to end the first half bled over to Louisville's offensive efforts in the second half. The Cards went 18-of-32 from the field after halftime with a 7-of-16 mark on threes, and had over double as many assists (14) as they had turnovers (6).

Add in a 11-of-29 shooting half by Montana, and the Griz never posed a threat to mount a comeback. The only time UofL's advantage fell below 20 points in the second half was in the first few minutes of the period, and a 12-0 run to make it a 35-point lead with 7:34 left essentially iced the game.

Next up, Louisville will head to the West Coast to kick off ACC play with a matchup at Cal. Tip-off against the Golden Bears is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 30 at 9:00 p.m. EST.

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