Men's Basketball Opens Season With an 86-45 Win Over Samford

Friday, November 13

LOUISVILLE, KY

7:00 PM ET

University of Louisville

1-0

SAMFORD

0-1

SAMFORD

LOUISVILLE

Men's Basketball Opens Season With an 86-45 Win Over Samford

November 13, 2015 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Damion Lee and Donovan Mitchell lead the Cardinals with 14 points apiece

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Louisville easily dismissed Samford 86-45 on Friday night to win its 12th straight season opener.

Damion Lee and freshman Donovan Mitchell each scored 14 points in their first games at Louisville (1-0).

Christen Cunningham led Samford (0-1) with 15 points, hitting all nine of his foul shots. The Bulldogs shot just 21 percent (13 of 62). It was the lowest output for a Louisville opponent since Savannah State shot 20 percent on November 24, 2014.

Coming into the season, Louisville coach Rick Pitino said shot blocking would be his team's strength. The Cardinals showed it early, swatting five shots in the first 12 minutes - as many as the team averaged a game last season. Louisville finished with nine blocks, five from Chinanu Onuaku.

The game was firmly settled early in the second quarter as an 11-0 run put the Cardinals up by 32. Samford missed nine straight shots and was scoreless for nearly seven minutes during the stretch.

The Cardinals built their first comfortable lead with a 10-0 run midway through the first half to go up 23-11. Samford later went nearly seven minutes without a field goal as Louisville used a 15-2 run to take a 41-25 edge with 2:12 left in the half. The Cardinals led 48-27 at halftime.

The outcome made for an unpleasant homecoming for Samford coach Scott Padgett. The Louisville native played under Pitino at Kentucky prior to his NBA career.

TIP-INS
Samford: The Bulldogs were picked to finish seventh in the Southern Conference this season. . Darius Jones-Gibson, a preseason All-Conference selection, missed all six shots from the field and finished with two points.

Louisville: Louisville is one of just four Division I schools to win 20 or more games in each of the last 13 seasons, joining Kansas, Duke and Gonzaga.

YOUNG BIRDS
Only two Cardinals - Mangok Mathiang and David Levitch - have been with the program for more than a year. Just 17 percent of the scoring returned from last year's Elite 8 team, the lowest amount for the school in 43 years. Two graduate transfers, Trey Lewis and Damion Lee, were brought in for this season in hopes of bringing scoring and experience.

SAMFORD'S BLUEGRASS TIES
Joining Padgett, Friday's game allowed a number of Samford players and staff reconnect with the state of Kentucky. Backcourt starters Cunningham (Georgetown) and Jones-Gibson (Lexington) and freshman forward Matt Rose (Lexington) are Kentucky natives. Samford athletics director Martin Newton worked at the University of Kentucky for two seasons. Newton's father, C.M., was the UK athletics director who hired Rick Pitino to coach in the Wildcats in 1989.

UP NEXT
Louisville: Host Hartford on Tuesday.
Samford: Host Auburn-Montgomery on Monday.