LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of Louisville men’s basketball started their preseason play strong with a 106-59 win over Young Harris on Monday night at the KFC Yum! Center.
The Cardinals opened the contest with a 16-2 run, holding the Mountain Lions scoreless for the first three and a half minutes of the exhibition. UofL scored 10 unanswered points between 3:47 and 2:08 to extend their lead to 31 points with a score of 55-24.
Louisville closed the half on an 18-3 run, kicked off by back-to-back threes from Noah Waterman. The Cards led 63-27 at the break. Terrence Edwards Jr. had 22 points in the first half, hitting six three pointers on eight attempts.
UofL came out of the half a little sluggish but picked up the pace at the 15-minute mark. They scored another 12 unanswered points to go up by 47, with a score of 84-37. The run came off threes from Koren Johnson, Chucky Hepburn and Reyne Smith, and was capped off by three points from sophomore James Scott.
The Cardinals led by as much as 50 in the waning minutes of the game. The team’s 24 made three pointers surpasses the program record of 22.
Eleven Cardinals scored in the game, led by Edwards Jr. who had 24 points. Smith had 20 points. Hepburn and Johnson each had seven assists.
Head coach Pat Kelsey, in his first year at the helm of the Louisville men’s team, said he was ready to see his team in action after months of preparation.
“I thought it was great to be out there with the lights on,” he said. “The ovation that we got when we came out was great. Our guys jumped on them from the tip and banged a bunch of threes in the first half. We played really hard and got us off to a great start.”
The Cards play their second and final exhibition against Spalding on Monday night at the KFC Yum! Center at 7 p.m. ET.
