Big Second Half Pushes Cardinals Past Bellarmine, 73-68

Wednesday, November 29

LOUISVILLE, KY

8 p.m.

University of Louisville

4-3,0-0ACC

Bellarmine

2-6,0-0ASUN

Bellarmine

Louisville

Big Second Half Pushes Cardinals Past Bellarmine, 73-68

November 29, 2023 | Men's Basketball

Box Score PDF Box VIDEO: Kenny Payne Press Conference VIDEO: Brandon Huntley-Hatfield/Skyy Clark Press Conference VIDEO: Game Highlights Photo Gallery

By: Zach Greenwell

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville men's basketball exploded for 51 points in the second half Wednesday night, surging past crosstown foe Bellarmine 73-68 at the KFC Yum! Center.

The Cardinals (4-3) trailed 27-22 at halftime, but shot 55% in the second half and made 16 of 22 free throws after the break. The victory tied their win total for all of last season and avenged last year's one-point, season-opening loss to the Knights.

"We have a new team this year as everyone knows, and we just wanted to remember last year and how it went," junior forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield said. "Louisville vs. Bellarmine – we all knew what was at stake. They're a very good team. A very, very disciplined team. So, we just wanted to have the right focus, one through 15. We just wanted to come out here and be different than last year, and I feel like we did that."

Bellarmine (2-6) led 33-29 with 15:59 to play in the game when Louisville went on a 19-3 run over the next five minutes.

The spurt began and ended with 3-pointers by sophomore guard Skyy Clark, who led all scorers with 21 points.

"It was just that (Bellarmine) was a very, very different basketball team on offense and defense," Clark said. "They help in the gaps a lot and they switched one through five, so it was just something that we haven't seen before. We just needed to go through it in the first half and then in the second half, we knew what we needed to do."

The run concluded with the Cardinals up 48-36 at the 10:40 mark. A 7-0 run by Bellarmine later cut the lead to 54-52 with 4:04 remaining, but Huntley-Hatfield and Clark responded with back-to-back baskets.

Louisville made nine free throws in the final 90 seconds. The Cards entered the game leading the country in free-throw attempts, but shot zero in the first half after drawing just three fouls.

"For me, I'm proud of those guys in the locker room," UofL head coach Kenny Payne said. "I hope that people understand that a year ago was very hard for all of us and you can see that we're a better team and we're not even close to as good as we can be. We've got a lot of growth to do. We've got a lot of growing up to do, but we have the ingredients to be a pretty decent team."

Sophomore guard Tre White added 14 points, four rebounds and three assists for UofL, while redshirt sophomore guard/forward Mike James had 10 points.

Huntley-Hatfield tallied nine points and 10 boards. Freshman guard Ty-Laur Johnson chipped in eight points and five assists.

Garrett Tipton and Bash Wieland each scored 18 points to lead Bellarmine.

The Cardinals hit the road to begin ACC play at Virginia Tech at 4 p.m. ET Sunday in Blacksburg, Va. The game will air on ACC Network.