Louisville showed an impressive turnaround in their game against Bellarmine on Wednesday night, outscoring their crosstown rivals 51-68 in the second half and securing a 73-68 victory at the KFC Yum! Center. The win not only tied the Cardinals’ win total for last season, but also avenged their one-point loss to the Knights in last year’s season opener.
After trailing 27-22 at halftime, Louisville came out strong in the second half, shooting an impressive 55% from the field and making 16 of 22 free throws. Junior forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield commented on the team’s motivation, saying, “We just wanted to remember last year and how it went. Louisville vs. Bellarmine – we all knew what was at stake. They’re a very good team. A very, very disciplined team. So, we just wanted to have the right focus, one through 15. We just wanted to come out here and be different than last year, and I feel like we did that.”
Bellarmine had a 33-29 lead with 15:59 remaining in the game when Louisville embarked on a 19-3 run over the next five minutes. Sophomore guard Skyy Clark, who led all scorers with 21 points, played a crucial role in the run, hitting two 3-pointers to kickstart and conclude the surge. Clark acknowledged the challenges Bellarmine posed, saying, “They help in the gaps a lot and they switched one through five, so it was just something that we haven’t seen before. We just needed to go through it in the first half and then in the second half, we knew what we needed to do.”
Despite a late 7-0 run by Bellarmine that cut Louisville’s lead to 54-52 with 4:04 remaining, Huntley-Hatfield and Clark responded with consecutive baskets to maintain their team’s advantage. In the final 90 seconds, the Cardinals made nine free throws to seal the win. Interestingly, Louisville did not attempt a single free throw in the first half after drawing only three fouls.
UofL head coach Kenny Payne expressed his pride in his team’s performance, highlighting their growth from last year. He stated, “We’re a better team and we’re not even close to as good as we can be. We’ve got a lot of growth to do. We’ve got a lot of growing up to do, but we have the ingredients to be a pretty decent team.”
Aside from Skyy Clark’s impressive display, sophomore guard Tre White contributed 14 points, four rebounds, and three assists, while redshirt sophomore guard/forward Mike James added 10 points to the scoreboard. Huntley-Hatfield had a notable contribution with nine points and ten rebounds, while freshman guard Ty-Laur Johnson chipped in eight points and five assists.
For Bellarmine, Garrett Tipton and Bash Wieland each scored 18 points, leading their team’s efforts on the offensive end.
Looking ahead, Louisville will hit the road to begin ACC play against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. The game is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET on Sunday and will be televised on ACC Network.
