Louisville vs. Kentucky Wesleyan Postgame Notes

Nov. 11, 2010

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The Cardinals have now won 23 consecutive exhibition games dating back to an 87-86 double-overtime loss to the Global Sports All-Stars on Dec. 2, 2000. Louisville has emerged victorious in 29 of its last 30 exhibition games and has won its exhibition finale in each of the past 10 campaigns.

With 11 different scorers on Thursday night, U of L has now had at least eight players register a point in 23 straight exhibition bouts. In 18 of those games, the Cardinals had at least 10 players crack the scoring column, including all 15 who played in Louisville's 93-68 victory over Kentucky Wesleyan on Nov. 19, 2006. The last occurrence of less than eight scorers for Louisville coincides with the Cardinals' last exhibition defeat, as six players found the net in U of L's aforementioned loss to the Global Sports All-Stars in 2000.

Louisville improves to 3-0 in exhibition matchups against Kentucky Wesleyan, having defeated the Panthers 81-51 on Nov. 3, 2004, as well as in the previously mentioned 2006 matchup. The two teams have met 69 times in regular-season play, making KWC the sixth-most common opponent in Cardinal history (Cincinnati leads the way with 93 games all-time against U of L).

The Cardinals lead the all-time series 51-18 (exhibition games excluded) and have won 32 of the past 33 and 36 of the last 38 regular-season meetings, including a 21-game winning streak from Jan. 20, 1947-Feb. 1, 1958 that still stands as the longest by Louisville against one opponent in school history.

Including the three exhibitions, Louisville has defeated the Panthers in each of the past 14 meetings, last falling at the end of the 21-game win streak. The Cardinals have also beaten KWC 20 consecutive times at home, with their most recent loss coming on Nov. 30, 1946.

The Cardinals improve to 114-7 (including exhibition games) in the Pitino era when reaching the 80-point mark. U of L has now scored 80 points or more in 10 of its past 11 exhibition contests. The 96 points in the game were the most for Louisville in an exhibition contest since a 132-83 win over the One World All-Stars on Dec. 11, 2002, as was the 42-point margin of victory.

Louisville has now held its last nine exhibition foes under 70 points. Georgetown College was the last to score 70+ in an exhibition against U of L, putting up 92 in a two-point loss to the Cards on Nov. 1, 2006.

Sophomore Mike Marra's five rebounds were one more than he had ever collected in a regular-season game. Marra has grabbed four rebounds twice, doing so against Stetson (Dec. 2, 2009) and at Syracuse (Feb. 14, 2010). He also set career bests in field goals made (four), three-pointers made (four), and three-point attempts (12) in that win over the second-ranked Orange.

Had it been a regular-season game, Marra would have set a career high in points in the first half, as the guard put up 14 in the first 20 minutes of the contest (he finished with 22 points on 6-of-8 shooting from three-point range).

Marra's six three-point field goals were the most by any Cardinal player in an exhibition game over the last 10 seasons. The previous high was held jointly by Taquan Dean (5-for-9 against the Asheville Altitude on Nov. 23, 2003) and Carlos Hurt (5-for-10 versus the Premier All-Stars on Dec. 3, 2001).

Marra finished the exhibition season 9-for-15 (.600) from long range, giving him the most threes made by a U of L player in exhibition play in a season since 2000--no one on even the 2006-07 squad, which played five exhibition games, had more. Francisco Garcia (2003-04), Terrence Williams (2006-07), and Andre McGee (2006-07) shared the previous season high with eight.

Sophomore Peyton Siva also had a career day, dropping 18 points in the game (his career regular-season high is 14, set against West Virginia on Jan. 30, 2010).

The Cardinals' four sophomores--Marra, Siva, Rakeem Buckles, and Stephan Van Treese--accounted for 57 of the team's 96 points.

Buckles is now averaging 7.3 rebounds per contest over four career exhibition games after picking up eight in the victory.

After going nearly six years between instances of holding an exhibition opponent to 25 or fewer first half points, the Cards have now done so in back-to-back games, giving up 25 points each to Northern Kentucky and Kentucky Wesleyan in the first stanzas. And after setting a Pitino era best with a 21-point halftime lead against the Norse, U of L reset the record with a 26-point (51-25) midway margin over the Panthers.

The 51 first-half points for U of L were the second most in an exhibition game for a Pitino-led Cardinal squad, bested only by a 58-point effort against One World on Dec. 11, 2002 (a game in which 215 points were scored). Louisville scored 74 points in the second half of that game.

Louisville has held its opponents to just 13.3 percent (4-for-30) shooting from long range in the first halves of its two exhibition games. NKU was 2-for-17 (.118) on Oct. 31, while KWC was just 2-for-13 (.154) on Thursday. While the Norse ended with a respectable percentage (.333) after a 7-for-10 second half, there would be no such turnaround for the Panthers, who finished 6-for-26 (.231).

Kentucky Wesleyan also went just 2-for-10 from the line in the game, uncharacteristic of a team that finished ninth in Division II with a .761 mark a year ago.

After averaging 50.0 rebounds per game over their past three exhibition contests, the Cardinals matched that mark with 50 rebounds against the Panthers. U of L finished exhibition play with a +48 rebound margin (105-57).

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