LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — On the list of things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving morning: a warm gym, a cold opponent, and a Louisville basketball team that lit up the scoreboard like a string of holiday lights.
The Cardinals blasted past New Jersey Institute of Technology 104-47 on Wednesday night, stuffing the box score with 20 made 3-pointers — two shy of a school record — and setting a new program mark with 48 attempts from beyond the arc.
That’s not all. The 52-point first half marked the fifth time this season Louisville has reached 50 before the break — the first Cards team to do that since the 2013-14 squad that spent time ranked No. 1 nationally. You could also give thanks for 24 assists, 58 rebounds and zero injuries.
"Our guys were on it," Louisville coach Pat Kelsey said. "They were on it in preparation, one-day turnaround, obviously, from a talent standpoint, you know, our team overall is more talented. But you know, our guys played the right way. They prepared the right way. I thought yesterday was was really good. They were locked in. We've played several games in a short amount of time. Got a bunch of guys with knicks and bruises and banged up and a lot of stuff going on. And, you know, we treated this game like our Super Bowl, because that's what we do for every single game."
For a second straight game, even when the lead ballooned past 30 points, Louisville players stayed in their lanes, kept defending, kept running offense, kept passing the ball.
"I thought we hit all of our all metrics and all of our goals in terms of the effort, things we do -- run the floor, crashing the offensive glass," Kelsey said. "They guarded right down there till the end, shared the ball, got a bunch of assists. Guys were giving up good shots for great shots, everything I could have asked of them in preparation yesterday, and then attacking everything today. I was really proud of them."
Look, from a competitive standpoint, this one was a turkey. But Ryan Conwell most definitely was not. The senior guard feasted with 32 points, nine rebounds and six assists, hitting 8 of 15 from deep. He wasn’t alone.
Isaac McKneely added 17 points and five 3-pointers of his own. Adrian Wooley scored 15, and J’Vonne Hadley contributed 12. Mikel Brown Jr. had nine points, seven rebounds and five assists, as Louisville shot 50% from the field and 42% from three.
"Every time we come to the huddle, we say 0-0," Conwell said. "It's all about our process. No matter the score, whether we're up or down, we have to stay true to our principles and keep good habits, because that's what we're gonna need to go far."
The Cardinals led for 39 minutes and 46 seconds. NJIT never led. There were zero ties, zero lead changes, and zero minutes of real suspense. If this had been a movie, it would've been on the Hallmark Channel.
Louisville (7-0) now breaks for the holiday before a tougher test at Arkansas on Wednesday, Dec. 3.
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