Louisville Leads Wire-to-Wire in 89-61 Win

Wednesday, November 27

Paradise, Bahamas

12 p.m.

University of Louisville

4-1,0-0ACC

#14/15 Indiana

4-1,0-0Big Ten

Indiana

Louisville

Kasean Pryor dunks the ball at the Battle 4 Atlantis

November 27, 2024 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)VIDEO: Pat Kelsey, Chucky Hepburn, Noah Waterman Press Conference Photo Gallery

The Cardinals earn a ranked win for the first time since Jan. 6, 2021

By: Dana Brown

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas – UofL men's basketball never trailed in an 89-61 rout of No. 14/15 Indiana on Wednesday afternoon in the quarterfinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis.

"I want to give Indiana a lot of credit," said Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey. "They're extremely talented, very well coached, very difficult to prepare for. That's one of the elite teams in the country, I believe. I'm so proud of our guys, their defensive effort. I just thought they played with such tenacity and grit, so much activity. We were fortunate to come out with a win."

The Cardinals opened up the half with two quick buckets to take the initial lead. Indiana responded with two of its own to tie it up, but then Louisville would never relinquish the advantage for the remainder of the game.

In the back-and-forth half, the Cardinals pushed their lead as high as 10 points on three different occasions. The Hoosiers were able to cut it to four, but never closer. Louisville didn't score from 3:16 on in the first half but managed to maintain an eight-point lead at halftime.

The Cards netted seven 3-pointers in the first half and dished out 11 assists on 15 buckets overall.

Right out of the gate, Indiana scored to close the gap to 37-31. Louisville immediately responded with 11 straight points to push its advantage back to 48-31 with 17:05 on the clock.

The Cardinals kept their foot on the gas, using a 23-3 run between 14:04 and 7:08 to make it a 38-point game, Louisville's largest lead of the afternoon, at 78-40. Indiana scored the five seven points of the game to get the deficit below 30.

The victory is Louisville's first over a ranked team since beating No. 19/20 Virginia Tech 73-71 on Jan. 6, 2021. It's the highest ranked opponent the Cards have beat since beating No. 3 Duke 79-73 on Jan. 18, 2020.

Senior guard Chucky Hepburn led the way for the Cardinals with 16 points, a career-high 10 assists and seven steals. He's the first Division I college basketball player to record those numbers or better since Markquis Nowell of Kansas State did it against West Virginia with 23 points on Dec. 31, 2022.

Sixth-year senior Noah Waterman joined Hepburn with 16 points, going 4 of 8 from the arc. He added three rebounds, an assist and a steal.

Malik Reneau led the Hoosiers with a third of their points. He had 21 points, seven boards, four assists and two steals.

"Obviously, the caliber of teams in this tournament, you can enjoy the win for about one minutes and 47 seconds," added Kelsey. "We'll turn the page to get ready for our next opponent because we go again tomorrow at noon. We've got to recover our minds and bodies, recover quickly, and we're fortunate to get to compete again tomorrow at noon."

Louisville will play either No. 3/4 Gonzaga or West Virginia at noon on Thursday in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.