Cards Carve Up Hoosiers for Thanksgiving

By Nick Jenkinson/Excel H Sports

   The Louisville Cardinals dominated the #12 Excel H Sports Indiana Hoosiers 89-61 in the opener of the Battle 4 Atlantis at the Imperial Arena at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island in Nassau the Bahamas Wednesday Afternoon. The Cardinals are 4-1 on the season and had 4 players in double figures led by Wisconsin Transfer Chucky Hepburn with 16 points and 10 assists along with 16 points from Noah Waterman. Kasean Pryor added 14 points and Reyne Smith added 12 points off the bench. The Hoosiers suffered its first loss of the season were led by Malik Reneau with 21 points and 11 points from Oumar Ballo. Louisville is 4-3 all-time in neutral site games against Indiana leads the all-time series 12-10.

   Louisville went 37-65 from the field for 57%, 10-27 from three-point range for 37% and 5-7 from the free throw line for 71%. The Cardinals pulled down 34 rebounds, dished out 23 assists, 15 steals, 1 block and committed 15 turnovers. Indiana struggled going 21-63 from the field for 33%, 7-20 from three-point range for 35% and 12-17 from the free throw line for 70%. The Hoosiers pulled down 40 rebounds, dished out 12 assists, 8 steals, 3 blocks and committed 23 turnovers. The Hoosiers backcourt of Myles Rice and Kannan Carlyle combined for 3 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and 3 turnovers. Sophomore Mackenzie Mgbako was held to 8 points.

   Louisville never trailed and the game was tied once at 4-4 with 17:11 left in the first half as Oumar Ballo had dunk to tie the game. From there the Cardinals controlled the game they had 30 points off turnovers and 48 points in the paint as the led the Hoosiers 37-29 at halftime. In the Second Half the Cardinals were running and gunning getting easy buckets and knocking down wide open three-point shots outscoring the Hoosiers 52-32. Indiana trailed 29-25 with 5:43 to go in the first half when Malik Reneau hit a three pointer as IU failed to score a field goal for the rest of the half and outscored 8-4.

   Indiana could not make easy baskets and left a lot of points at the rim going for 4-19 in layups and let the Cardinals have way too many open three-point shots and a lack of intensity and defensive effort for the majority of the game. Louisville was able to control the game, and it helps when you have a guy like Chucky Hepburn who battled with the Hoosiers in the Big Ten know how to play this team and he did what he wanted when he wanted. “They are big, and they are physical, and they are strong. we just thought our advantage was being able to space the floor and play with great pace.” Louisville Head Coach Pat Kelsey said after the game.

   As for Indiana and Mike Woodson it’s a lot of the same things that he has said before after his teams have been run out of the gym and today was no different. “Tonight, we went backwards, and I gotta get us going forward.” Along with “As a coach I got to get this team more ready to go.” Woodson said and We go out-toughed, and that’s unacceptable.” The Hoosiers have two more games left so there is little time to dwell on this one and get ready for two more games. “I mean, we got a game tomorrow night, and, you know, we got to go back and put them through this film session and see if we can learn from it and see if I can get them over the hump and get them back going again for tomorrow night. you can’t run from it” Woodson said. This could be a long three days if the Hoosiers don’t turn this around in a hurry and they about 24 hours to get ready for the game tomorrow at 2:30 pm.