Louisville snapped a three-game losing streak in conference openers with a dominant 90-70 win Tuesday night at California.
The Cardinals moved to 1-0 in ACC play thanks in large part to 14 made three-pointers
and a 36-16 scoring edge in the paint. U of L also limited a Bears team that entered the night as the 14th best three-point shooting team in the country to just 9-of-26 from beyond the arc.
With star point guard Mikel Brown Jr. sidelined for a third straight game because of a lingering back injury, Ryan Conwell and Adrian were once again up to the task, scoring 26 and 21 points, respectively. Isaac McKneely and J’Vonne Hadley each added 11 points, while Sananda Fru posted his first collegiate double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
With the win, U of L moved to 10-1 in ACC road games under Pat Kelsey.
Look, this was an ass-kicking from just about start to finish. Louisville scored the first 10 points of the game and led by as many as 27 before Cal made its only real run of the game to cut the margin to 11. U of L responded with a quick 7-0 run to put things back out of reach and then salted away the victory.
Cal has dudes and Mark Madsen knows what he’s doing, and Louisville still made them look pretty silly Tuesday night. All in all, a pretty fantastic way to kick off the second half of the season.
Let’s get the West Coast sweep Friday night.
