Posted on by jeffrey9910

Louisville came into the season opener at KFC Yum! Center 2.5-point favorites over the visiting IUPUI Jaguars.

The game started well enough for Louisville as they took a 3-point lead into the half. Senior forward Derek Walters and freshman forward Ryan Clark lead the way for the Cardinals with seven points each. Walters grabbed a rebound while going 2-for-5 from the field. Clark grabbed five rebounds.

Senior guard Allen Williams led the way for IUPUI, scoring 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting while dishing out two assists. No other starter scored more than three points. Junior forward Darius Brown scored seven points for the Jaguars off the bench on 3-of-4 shooting.

The Cardinals shot 44% from the field compared to 43% for IUPUI. But Louisville went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc, while IUPUI went 35%.

IUPUI outscored Louisville 37-34 in the second half to force overtime. In the overtime period, the Cardinals scored just three points compared to eight for the Jaguars as IUPUI picked up the 76-71 win.

Clark led all Louisville scorers, scoring 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting while grabbing six rebounds. Clark though would finish the game a -16, the worst of all Cardinals. Walters scored 13 points on 3-of-12 shooting. Walters went 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. Junior guard Maurice Johnson led the way off the bench, scoring nine points on 2-of-2 shooting and a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line.

Four of the five starters for IUPUI scored double-digit points. Williams led all Jaguars, scoring 20 points on 7-of-17 shooting, while going 4-of-11 from beyond the arc. Senior forward Colin Forman scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. Senior center Kevin Drayton added 13 points and senior guard Mark Nilson scored 11. Junior forward Darius Brown led the Jaguars bench, scoring seven points on 3-of-5 shooting.

The Cardinals shot just 40% from the field and 14% (2-of-14) from beyond the arc with senior shooting guard Tate Kincade going 0-for-6 and scoring just eight points. “Tate is our leader,” said coach Sam Fisher after the game “We are gonna live and die by him. So if he doesn’t produce it’s gonna be a bad season.”

If Louisville Cardinals fans thought it couldn’t get worse to start the season than losing to IUPUI, they’d be wrong.

It was all TCU from the tipoff as the Horned Frogs took a 17-point 47-30 halftime lead before picking up the 42-point 96-54 win.

The Cardinals finished the first half going 2-for-7 from beyond the arc for 28% while shooting 38% from the field. Compared to TCU they shot 47% from the field and 33% from beyond the arc.

Three players tied for five points each to lead the Cardinals. Senior forward Derek Walters, freshman Ricky Clark, and junior guard Maurice Johnson off the bench. For TCU, senior center Brett Fountain led the Horned Frogs with nine points on 3-of-4 shooting. Sophomore forward Jeff Iversen and senior point guard Josh Phelan added seven points. Iversen also grabbed five rebounds.

The second half didn’t go any better for Louisville, as the Cardinals wouldn’t see a single player score double-digit points. Walters and sophomore center Sam Reece scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds. Senior shooting guard Tate Kincade scored seven points on 2-of-8 shooting and going 3-of-4 from the free throw line. With today’s game, Kincaide is now 0-for-10 from beyond the arc this season.

Junior guard Mark Amaker scored 11 points in the second half to finish the game with 17 points to lead TCU. Amaker went 7-of-10 from the field and grabbed two rebounds. Iversen and Phelan both scored 14 points. Iversen on 5-of-7 shooting with eight rebounds, while Phelan was 4-of-13 from the field and grabbed five rebounds with five assists.

As if it couldn’t get worse for Louisville, Ricky Clark suffered a hip injury and it’s expected to take about a week for him to return to 100%. TCU now faces #1 seeded Kentucky (2-0) in the semi-finals.

  • #1 seeded Kentucky beats TCU 84-61 to head to the championship game of the Paradise Jam Tournament.
  • #6 seeded Washington State beats #7 seed Harvard 81-70 to face Kentucky in the championship game.
  • #1 seed Kentucky makes easy work of #6 seed Washington State, 81-70.

Next week the Cardinals host the Northern Kentucky Norse (0-1) on Wednesday and before hosting Fishers’ former team the Kent State Golden Flashes (0-1) on Saturday.