Louisville Downs Cal in ACC Opener

BERKELEY, Cal. - Embarking on a two-game trip out to the West Coast to begin Atlantic Coast Conference play, the Louisville men's basketball program kicked off league play in style, taking down Cal to the tune of 90-70 on Tuesday night from Haas Pavilion.

The No. 16 Cardinals (11-2, 1-0 ACC) pick up their first true road win of the season, previously falling at Arkansas and Tennessee earlier this month. They also hand the Golden Bears (12-2, 0-1 ACC), who were off to their best start since the 1959-60 season, their first home loss of the season.

While Louisville hadn't played in 10 days due to Christmas break, they didn't skip a beat on either end of the floor. They shot 46.4 percent from the field, while holding to Cal to only 33.9 percent shooting. Not only did UofL go 14-of-37 on three-point tries, they also out-rebounded the Bears 50-to-31 and scored 36 points in the paint.

The only area where the home team had a decisive advantage was at free throw line, and even that was not enough. Louisville was called for 25 fouls to Cal's 16, resulting in the Golden Bears going 21-of-27 from the charity stripe to the Cardinals' 12-of-14.

Louisville was led primarily by a pair of 20-point performances from Ryan Conwell and Adrian Wooley. Conwell finished with 26 points, four assists and four rebounds, while Wooley added 21 points. Sananda Fru also notched a 13-point/14-rebound double-double, with Isaac McKneely and J'Vonne Hadley each scoring 11.

The decisive victory, once again, came without Mikel Brown Jr. Despite being a full participant in practice earlier in the week, the star point guard for the Cards had to miss his third consecutive game due to a lower back injury.

But even without Brown, Louisville set the tone right from the jump. They scored the first 10 points of the game and connected on their first five field goal attempts, with Cal having to burn a timeout just 2:16 into the game.

In fact, Louisville got off to a very hot shooting start, hitting 14 of their first 23 shot attempts, and going 19-of-35 from the field in the first half overall. A 15-4 run to put them up 21 with under six minutes left in the period threatened to blow Cal out of their own gym.

However, despite Cal only shooting 8-of-24 in the first half, Louisville held just a 48-34 advantage at the break. This was because of a massive free throw discrepancy, with the Cardinals being called for 16 first half fouls and the Golden Bears just six. As a result, Cal added a 14-of-18 mark from the charity stripe before halftime, while Louisville was 2-for-2.

In the second half, the whistle finally evened out, which allowed the Cards to pull away fairly early in the period. While they only shot 13-of-34 after halftime, they were able to hold the Bears to just 12-of-35, resulting in their lead ballooning to 20 points with just under 15 minutes left in the game. A 14-0 run by Cal made things slightly interesting down the stretch, but Louisville was able to respond and finish the job.

Next up, Louisville caps off their trip to the West Coast with a matchup at Stanford. Tip-off against the Cardinal is scheduled for Friday, Jan. 2 at 8:00 p.m. EST.

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