Cardinals Host Bellarmine on Sunday for First of Two Exhibition Games

GAME FACTS
Date: Sunday, Oct. 28
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Site: KFC Yum! Center/Crum Court, Louisville, Ky. (22,000) (131-21 in 8th year)
Television: ACC Network Extra (available to authenticated subscribers of ESPN on the
Watch ESPN app) Kent Taylor, play-by-play; Jody Demling, analyst.
Radio: Radio: WHAS (WHAS, 840 AM) Paul Rogers, play-by-play; Bob Valvano, analyst (game not available on Sirius XM)
Series History: UofL leads 12-0 (regular season games; UofL leads 8-0 in exhibitions)
Last Meeting: UofL 72, Bellarmine 57 (exhibition/Nov. 7, 2017 at KFC Yum! Center)
Officials: Bert Smith, Bart Lenox, Alfred Smith
Next UofL Game: Nov. 3 vs. Simmons College of Kentucky, KFC Yum! Center, 7 p.m. ET (ACC Network Extra)

Louisville will play its first game of the 2018-19 season against outside competition as the Cardinals face the Bellarmine Knights in an exhibition game on Sunday. UofL tuned up with a public intrasquad scrimmage on Oct. 21 won 55-41 by the White squad in a full half plus a 10 minute running clock second half.

UofL, which posted a 22-14 record last season, is entering a new era under the direction of Coach Chris Mack, who guided Xavier to a 215-97 record and eight NCAA Tournament appearances in nine seasons. While the Cardinals return eight letterman from last year's unit, junior V.J. King is the Cardinals' lone returning starter. King was a starter at shooting guard in all 36 games for the Cardinals last season, scoring in double figures in 14 games, including seven of the last 16 and nine of the last 20.

Louisville returns 39 percent of its scoring from its 2017-18 squad (1074 of 2721 points), 36 percent of its rebounding (478 of 1316), 35 percent of its assists (169 of 489) and 43 percent of the total minutes played (3133 of 7300).

Coached by UofL graduate and former Cardinal assistant coach Scott Davenport, Bellarmine is ranked as the nation's top team by the Division II Bulletin and is No. 2 preseason by Street & Smith's. The Knights return eight of their top 10 scorers from last season when Bellarmine posted a 29-3 record, won both the Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season and postseason tournament titles, and reached the NCAA Division II tournament for the10th straight year. Knights senior Adam Eberhard, who averaged 14.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game last year, is a preseason All-America selection by Street & Smith's.

Louisville has won all 12 regular season meetings against Bellarmine. That figure is not inclusive of eight exhibition games the teams played in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 — all UofL victories. Louisville won the first meeting 79-52 at Bellarmine on Dec. 6, 1960, a year in which John Turner lead the Cardinals to a 21-8 record and UofL's third NCAA Tournament appearance.

Deng Adel scored 21 points and Anas Mahmoud totaled nine points and a game-high 11 rebounds as Louisville prevailed 72-57 in an exhibition game over Bellarmine in the last meeting between the teams (11-7-17). The Cardinals held a commanding 43-25 rebounding advantage and limited the Knights to 42.6 percent from the field against a team that would go on to finish second in NCAA Division II in field goal percentage last season (.530).

University of Louisville Athletics

Cardinals Host Bellarmine on Sunday for First of Two Exhibition Games

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Deng Adel

V.J. King

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