Cardinals Set Season High in Assists, But Fall at Florida State

Saturday, December 10

Tallahassee, FL

1 p.m.

University of Louisville

0-9,0-2ACC

Florida State

2-9,1-1ACC

Louisville

Florida St.

Cardinals Set Season High in Assists, But Fall at Florida State

December 10, 2022 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)VIDEO: Kenny Payne/Mike James Press Conference

By: Zach Greenwell

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Louisville men's basketball couldn't claim its first win of the season in its first true road game of the year, falling 75-53 at Florida State on Saturday.

The Cardinals (0-9, 0-2 ACC) set a new season high with 14 assists on 20 made baskets and knocked down nine 3-pointers, but they struggled from inside the arc where they lost the points in the paint 36-14.

"Our game plan coming into the game was to get the ball in the lane and create offense for us, and not to drive to score but to drive to make the extra pass," UofL head coach Kenny Payne said. "It was the most assists we had this season at 14, which was pretty good, but then there's another piece to it. The other piece to it is they outrebounded us, they outcompeted us, and we have to take that personally and address those issues."

Florida State (2-9, 1-1 ACC) led wire-to-wire and scored 17 points off Louisville's 16 turnovers.

Redshirt freshman guard/forward Mike James cut into the Seminoles' lead with back-to-back 3s to make it 21-15 with 9:25 remaining in the first half, but Florida State went on an 8-0 run to open a 29-15 advantage.

The Cardinals assisted on eight of their nine first-half baskets but still trailed 36-24 at the break.

Florida State scored seven of the first 10 points of the second to increase its advantage, which reached 24 with seven-plus minutes to go.

"They start to score off our turnovers and get easy buckets in transition," James said. "We've just got to lock in more as a team, notice when they're going on that run and calm ourselves to try to go on a run of our own."

Senior guard El Ellis led Louisville with 15 points and four assists, while James scored nine points on three made 3-pointers. Redshirt junior forward Jae'Lyn Withers added eight points, seven rebounds and three assists.

Caleb Mills paced Florida State with 16 points.

The Cardinals return home to non-conference action Wednesday against in-state foe Western Kentucky at 9 p.m. ET. The game will air on ESPN2.