Louisville Drops Road Game at Tennessee

Tuesday, December 16

Knoxville, Tenn.

7 p.m.

University of Louisville

9-2,0-0ACC

#20 Tennessee

8-3,0-0SEC

Louisville

Tennessee

December 16, 2025 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Postgame Notes

Louisville falls to the Volunteers 83-62 on Tuesday evening

By: Erin Hughes

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The No. 11-ranked University of Louisville men's basketball team fell 83-62 to No. 20 Tennessee inside Food City Center on Tuesday night in its second true road game of the season.

With the loss, the Cards move to 9-2 on the season while Tennessee improves to 8-3 and snaps a three-game losing streak.

"Credit to Tennessee," said head coach Pat Kelsey. "They were the better team tonight. [They were] a tough, physical team - Coach Barnes' teams are always that way. I thought, in the first half, our defense was pretty good. They scored at 1.05 points per possession, which is solid defensively. [We had] a seven-point deficit at halftime, and then, I felt like in the second half, you credit Tennessee. They scored at like 1.4 or 1.45, something like that, which [for us] is not good and not solid. [They were] fouled, got to the free-throw line, and I think at one point they made a bunch of 3s in a row - there was a stretch there where they made some big 3s to really stretch the lead. They're the No. 1 rebounding team in the country for a reason. I thought we were getting hurt, and then I thought, if you look for any silver lining in the second half, I felt like our guys did a better job of limiting their second opportunities and second shots and showed a lot more fight and grit in the second half. [I] credit them. Congratulations to Tennessee. We've got some work to do, we've got a game on Saturday before the break and we've got to have a couple good days of preparation and respond the right way."

As a team, UofL shot 37.9%, going 22-of-58 from the field, including 7-for-34 from beyond the arc. Louisville totaled 30 rebounds, including 12 offensive boards, and went 11-of-18 from the line.

In his first start for the Cards, Adrian Wooley posted a season-high 19 points, going 6-for-13 from the field, 2-for-8 from deep and 5-for-6 from the charity stripe. Ryan Conwell led the offense with 22 points, including a team-high 12 points from deep, and added two steals. Sananda Fru was 2-of-3 from the field and posted five total boards for UofL along with three assists. Louisville was without freshman guard Mikel Brown Jr., who was sidelined by injury.

Tennessee's Ja'k Gillespie led all scorers with 23 points, and Nate Ament followed with 13 points of his own. Jaylen Carey logged a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds in the game.

The teams kept scoring tight in the opening minutes of the first half, and Louisville took its only lead of the half after Fru slammed down a dunk off a Tennessee turnover. The Vols took control from there, going five of seven from the field and leading 15-9 with just over 13 minutes to play.

Tennessee led by as much as 10 in the first half, leading 21-11. Offense from Wooley and Conwell kept the Cards in it as the two accounted for 17 of 19 UofL points with the team down 27-19. Wooley went 5-for-5 from the line in the half, with his fifth bringing Louisville within five at 29-24 at the under-four media timeout.

The Vols tacked on four more points before half, and Conwell logged his third 3-pointer as Tennessee led 34-27 at the end of the first 20 minutes. The Cards shot just 36% from the field in the opening half, which the Vols countered with 52% of shots made from the field.

UT opened the second half with a three on its first possession, and J'Vonne Hadley answered with a layup for his first points of the game. Hadley, Wooley and Conwell each added on for UofL, but Tennessee continued to connect from beyond the arc, knocking down three consecutive 3s to take a 53-38 lead and force Louisville's second timeout with 14:40 remaining.

The Cards would not get much closer for the remainder of the game as the Vols added on and kept the gap over 20 points for the final six minutes of play. UT had 34 points from its bench and 42 points in the paint compared to UofL's 30. Tennessee finished the game shooting 54.7%, going 29-of-53 from the field, 7-of-18 in three-point range and 18-for-28 from the free-throw line.

Louisville will return to the KFC Yum! Center to take on Montana on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET on ACCNX.