RAPID REACTION | No. 6 Louisville comes out swinging to drop No. 17 Indiana, 87-78

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WDRB) — They called it the CareSource Invitational, but for Indiana it felt more like a health-insurance claim. Louisville didn’t so much play a basketball game Saturday as file for reimbursement on its pride.

Three nights after being roughed up at Arkansas, the No. 6-ranked Cardinals came north and decided to administer preventative medicine. They landed the first punch a few body blows besides, beating No. 17 Indiana 87-78 before a sellout crowd of 18,777 that was able to get an early start on its Big Ten Championship tailgating.

The final two minutes were not quite comfortable for Louisville. Whether it was missing unnecessary long threes or fouling Indiana to give up points with the clock stopped, Louisville saw an 18-point lead with four minutes to play shrink to seven in the final minute, but Indiana got no closer.

Louisville led 16-0 before the Hoosiers located the basket. You could’ve left your seat for popcorn and missed Indiana’s entire contribution to the first seven minutes.

The Cards opened 3-for-5 from three. The Hoosiers opened like a car with no ignition. By halftime it was 41-27, and the only drama left was whether the rims would need counseling.

Ryan Conwell, the Indianapolis kid who used to dream of nights like this, delivered one instead. He scored 21 points, the calmest man in the building, threading threes and powering to the basket, while making 10 of 11 free throws. Every time Indiana thought about cutting the deficit to single digits, a Louisville shooter would answer like he had the cheat code.

Louisville needed this. Arkansas had left bruises, not just on the scoreboard, but on the and on the film session.

This was the bounce-back game where Pat Kelsey’s team remembered who it was: fast, fearless, and, for at least one night, beautifully balanced.

Isaac McKneely had 12 points, J’Vonne Hadley 15, Kobe Rodgers 12 on 4-for-4 shooting off the bench. The Cards made 13 of 31 threes. Sananda Fru had 12 points and seven boards. The stat sheet looked like a corrective prescription: take twice daily, avoid late lapses.

Indiana gave fans little to cheer for until its late surge. When it cut its deficit to 13 with six minutes left, Mikel Brown Jr. broke out of a slow offensive night with a soaring dunk, followed by a fast-break layup, to close the door.

By then Louisville had flipped most numbers that doomed it at Arkansas. From 39% shooting to 46%, from 28% behind the arc to 42%. Still, it gave up 18 second-chance points and scored only five.

Indiana made 11 of 34 threes, many of them late. Tucker DeVries finished with 26 points and Nick Dorn 15. Lamar Wilkerson added 12.

Louisville looked like a Top-10 outfit again for most of the night. You could see it in the extra pass, the defensive rotations, the way Kelsey’s bench rose after every stop. They played as if reputation were on the line, and maybe it was.

Next up for Louisville (8-1), a week off, before Memphis visits on Saturday. Indiana (7-2), which lost its second straight after falling at Minnesota on Wednesday, gets Penn State at home Tuesday night.