The University of Louisville basketball team held its second exhibition of the 09-10 season and walked away with a convincing 88-65 victory over the Bellarmine University Knights.  The Cardinals dominated from the opening tip till the final buzzer and sent former assistant coach Scott Davenport home witha loss in his final appearance in Freedom Hall.  The Cardinals used their athleticism and strength to overpower Bellarmine, and in the end the Knights just didn’t have an answer.  If you missed the action here is how it all unfolded.

Recap

The Cards jumped on the Knights early by scoring the first seven points of the game.  Knights guard Justin Benedetti drilled a three pointer to stop the run, but the Cards answered by scoring five more straight points to take a 12-3 lead.  Bellermaine would hang tough as they cut the Louisville lead to 17-11 midway through the half.  That is as close as the Knights would get the rest of the game as Louisville went on another 7-0 run to take a commanding 24-11 lead.  Louisville would extend their lead to as much as 15 in the half on two occasions before settling on a 43-30 halftime advantage. 

Edgar Sosa led the way for the Cards in the first half with some hot shooting, going 5-9 from the field, and finished with 12 points in the period.  Benedetti led the way for the Knights in the first period with 13 points.  Louisville shot a blazing 53.1% from the field in the first period while the Knights ended up at 34.5%.  Louisville also held a decisive advantage on the boards with a 24-14 advantage.

Bellarmine came out of the locker room and quickly scored the first four points of the second half cutting the Louisville advantage back to single digits at nine.  Louisville answered with a 4-0 run of their own thanks to back-to-back buckets by Samardo Samuels and Terrance Jennings pushing the lead back to 13.  The Cards would not let their lead slip into single digits the rest of the way as they blitzed the Knights with several runs.  Louisville Freshman Peyton Siva ignited the crowd in the second half by jumping out of the building to block a lay-up attempt by Knights forward Forrest Smallwood.  Siva virtually came out of nowhere and used every inch of his 6′0 frame to swat the shot from behind.  Then, moments later, Siva brought the house down when he followed up a Jerry Smith missed lay-up with a reverse slam off a rebound.  The Siva jam extended the lead to 65-43 with just over 10 minutes to play.  Bellarmine once again cut the lead back down to 13, but the Cards used a 19-6 run late in the game and end up with an 88-65 victory. 

The Cardinals were  led in scoring by Samuels who finished up with 18 points.   He paired those 18 points with a team high 14 rebounds to earn his second straight double-double.  The Cardinals also had two other double digit scorers in Preston Knowles with 15 points and Sosa with his 12.  Louisville had 10 of the 13 players that played break into the scoring column. 

The Knights were led in scoring by Benedetti who ended up with a game high 21 points on 8-16 shooting, including 5-11 from behind the arc. Two other Knights scored in double figures as Luke Sprague finished with 12 and Andrew Patterson poured in 10.  Louisville’s defense did a great job of shutting down Bellarmine’s pre-season All-American honorable mention guard Justin Hobbs.  Hobbs, the Knights top returning scorer finished the game with only seven points on 1-10 shooting.   

The Cards finished the game shooting 35-70 (50%) from the field and 7-22 (31%) from downtown.  Bellarmine wound up shooting 23-57 (40%) from the field and 9-25 (36%) from behind the arc.  Louisville also finished with a double digit advantage in rebounds at 45-34.  The Cardinal defense forced Bellarmine into 20 turnovers which was also a major part in the blow out win.

My Thoughts

1) Samardo Samuels continues to be a beast.  The man put up another double-double tonight in leading the Cards in both points and boards.  He dominated the Bellarmine front court and gave the Cards a huge advantage inside.  The Knights could not handle his size or strength which allowed him to have a monster game.

2) Peyton Siva is a freak athlete.  We all knew that this kid was going to be good coming in as a McDonald’s All-American.  But the athleticism that he showed tonight was something truly amazing.  He is an explosive player that can bring the house down with a variety of different plays.  We saw it tonight with his block and his reverse rebound jam, but he can also score and dish some mesmerizing dimes.  Siva finished with 9 points tonight and one assist.  He did however cut down on his turnovers with only two tonight which is a major improvement from last week. 

3) The other highly touted Freshman Rakeem Buckles had a decent game.  Buckles finished with eight points and five boards in 17 minutes of action.  He also came up with a team high three steals. I look for him to have a major role on this Cardinal squad. 

4) For some unknown reason, Kyle Kuric didn’t see much action tonight.  He is coming off a spectacular game against Georgetown when he scored 14 points, but tonight he only saw 11 minutes of action.  Kuric did not attempt a shot and finished with only one rebound.  Hope everything is ok with Kuric and he just didn’t play as much in order to give the other guy’s at the end of the bench some more minutes.

5)  Jerry Smith continues to struggle.  Smith, normally Louisville’s best shooter, finished with only three points tonight.  He finished the contest shooting only 1-6 from the field, including 1-3 from three-point range.  Hopefully this is just an early funk for Jerry that he will snap out of by the time the season starts.  The Cards are going to need Jerry to be a consistent shooter if they are going to have success. 

6) It was good to see the double headed monster in the lineup at the same time.  Both Terrance Jennings and Samuelsstarted the game and played several minutes together.  This duo of size and strength is something that several teams are going to have a hard time matching up against.  Both are big, physical bangers that can score, rebound, and play defense.  Jennings finished the game with six points and five boards. 

What’s Next?

The Cardinals will have about two weeks off before opening the regular season on November 17th.  Louisville will play Arkansas in the  Hall of Fame Showcase in St. Louis, Missouri.  Tip-off for that game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN2.