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University of Louisville
Southern Miss
No. 19 Louisville Crushes Southern Miss, 107-62
January 11, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 11, 2005
By JOEDY McCREARY
AP Sports Writer
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) - Francisco Garcia had 25 points to lead six Louisville players in double figures, and the 19th-ranked Cardinals routed Southern Mississippi 107-62 on Tuesday night.
Ellis Myles had 20 points for the Cardinals (13-3, 2-1 Conference USA), who led by as many as 48 points and shot 57 percent from the field in the Golden Eagles' worst home loss in school history.
Taquan Dean and Larry O'Bannon each had 13 points, Brandon Jenkins scored 12 and freshman Juan Palacios added 11 for Louisville, which showed no signs of recent injury struggles in its second straight league victory since being upset at Houston.
Garcia is averaging 23.3 points over his last six games, and the Cardinals won five of those by an average of nearly 37 points. He finished four shy of his season high set against Morehead State and tied against Eastern Kentucky.
Rashaad Carruth had a career-high 25 points for Southern Miss (9-6, 0-3), which has lost four straight.
It was the first meeting between coaches Rick Pitino and Larry Eustachy, who have a combined 698 college victories.
Michael Ford had 13 points and LSU transfer Mildon Ambres added 10 for Southern Miss, which lost for the first time at home under Eustachy.
Eustachy's mistake-prone Golden Eagles were briefly in this one.
Southern Miss led 5-0 before the Cardinals used a 22-3 run to take a 14-point lead just over 6 minutes into the game.
Louisville was 9-of-12 from the field during that stretch, held Southern Miss without a basket for nearly 5{ minutes and gradually built a 35-point lead late in the half.
Southern Miss had more turnovers (12) than field goals (9) in falling behind 60-27 at halftime. The Cardinals shot 69 percent from the field in the half.
The 45-point margin was the third-worst defeat in Southern Miss history, and was the Golden Eagles' worst loss ever at Reed Green Coliseum, surpassing a 41-point loss to Louisiana Tech in January 1973.
