It’s wasn’t always pretty, and Rick Pitino wasn’t pleased by the final rebounding numbers, but the University of Louisville men’s basketball team blitzed Barry (Fla.) University 91-71 Saturday in its first exhibition game.
Swingman Wayne Blackshear, who is embarking on his now-or-never senior season, tallied a team-high 22 points to lead the Cardinals to a 20-point victory against the Division II Buccaneers in front of 19,237 fans at the KFC Yum! Center.
UofL, which is ranked No. 8 in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 as well as No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, built a 16-point halftime lead and shot 52.1 percent (37 for 71) to beat Barry.
Preseason All-American Montrezl Harrell added 18 points, but only five rebounds for UofL, which was outrebounded 53-41 (including 29-16 on the offensive end) and outscored 29-27 in second-chance points by the Bucs.
“That’s what exhibition (season) is about,” Pitino, the Louisville head coach, said. “You see what you’re doing well and what you need to work on. It’s really about technique and that’s why we’ve been rebounding poorly. From a technical standpoint this was really good for us. Out there, we saw our flaws.”
Terry Rozier wasn’t flawless, but he wasn’t too far from it either. The sophomore guard continued to show he’s poised for a breakout season with a near triple-double with 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists against zero turnovers. Sophomore big man Mangok Mathiang also showed significant improvement, scoring 11 points and snaring eight rebounds while senior point guard Chris Jones added nine points and five assists, but also had one-third of his team’s 12 turnovers.
The Cards, who were picked to finish third in the Atlantic Coast Confe
rence preseason poll earlier this week, dominated inside - outscoring Barry 50-30 in the paint - and turned 20
Bucs
turnovers into 25 points.
However UofL’s bench, of which Pitino primarily used sophomore guard Anton Gill and freshman big man Chinanu Onuaku, was outscored 37-16 by its Barry counterparts.
“(There were) a lot of things I liked, so it was a good exhibition game and we know what we need to work on going forward,” Pitino said.
The Cards host Bellarmine University at 12:30 p.m. next Sunday in their final exhibition game.
Photo courtesy University of Louisville Men’s Basketball Facebook Page
