Cards Close Exhibition Slate with Win Over Spalding

Monday, October 28

Louisville, Ky.

7 p.m.

University of Louisville

0-0,0-0ACC

Spalding (EXH)

0-0,0-0SLIAC

Spalding

Louisville

October 28, 2024 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score HC Pat Kelsey Postgame Press Conference Kasean Pryor/Koren Johnson Postgame Press Conference Photo Gallery

UofL beats Spalding 99-54

By: Dana Brown

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Louisville men's basketball completed its exhibition slate with a 99-54 win over Spalding at the KFC Yum! Center on Monday evening.

"First, I would like to thank Spalding for coming to play us tonight," said head coach Pat Kelsey. "Obviously, they are an institution here in the city that we are proud of. I know the Grays, the coaches over there do a phenomenal job. They are very involved with the youth groups and basketball at the grass roots level in this area. They are proud Louisvillians. They are great assets to our community. They do a great job. They are well-coached. They had a good game plan tonight. They did their best to limit our three-point looks and forced us to drive the ball and I thought we responded well. We got to the free throw line 36 times. A few of you guys were asking me the other day about threes and is that what we want to do every night. No, we want to do what the defense tells us to do. I thought we exploited them in other areas. It is good to get these two exhibitions under our belts and play in the KFC Yum! Center in front of the crowd as a quote, unquote practice. But it is on for real Monday against Morehead State and we are very excited about next Monday."

The Cardinals hit six of their first nine shots to take a 14-6 lead with 14:09 on the clock in the first half.

Louisville then went on a 12-0 run jumpstarted by a Noah Waterman 3 – the final five points in the run were scored by Koren Johnson. The run led UofL to a 21-6 lead with 13:11 on the clock.

In the final 10 minutes of the half, Louisville held Spalding without any field goals. In that time, the Cardinals used a 25-5 run to take a 53-21 edge into the break. Kasean Pryor had 15 of the Cards' 53 first-half points.

Spalding narrowed Louisville's lead to just 24 points at one point early in the second half.

Louisville rebounded quickly going on a 24-5 run between 11:24 and 1:14, extending its lead to 50 points. Johnson scored 12 of those 24 points. Spalding didn't score a field goal for over six and a half minutes in that time frame.

UofL had a great defensive effort, logging 21 steals and holding Spalding to a 36.4% clip from the field.

The Cardinals were led in scoring by Pryor who went a perfect 3 for 3 from the arc, contributing to his 26-point total. He went 9 of 12 from the field overall. Johnson followed right behind him with 20 points, 12 in the second half, with three assists and four steals in his 23 minutes on the floor.

Spalding's leading scorer was Anthony Dillard who shot 6 of 9 from the floor for a total of 15 points.

Louisville opens its season at home on Monday, Nov. 4 against in-state foe Morehead State at 7 p.m. in the KFC Yum! Center.