Seniors Shine in Sendoff as Cards Cruise to 87-70 Victory Over Georgia Tech

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The No. 21/21 University of Louisville men's basketball team sent their seniors out the right way with a Senior Day win over Georgia Tech 87-70 Saturday afternoon at the KFC Yum! Center.

"The crowd was awesome," said UofL head coach Pat Kelsey. "I did a little thing on social media yesterday, really asking people to honor these seniors here tonight. Saturday afternoon games are always awesome at the Yum! Center. I walked out and looked at the upper deck and it was a great crowd. I know the seniors really appreciate it. That's an awesome group of dudes. It's kind of unique just because this isn't our last home game, but just because this is a weekend game it made more sense with the parents traveling in and things like that. We'll watch the tape, clean a bunch of stuff up, we turned it over a little bit too much. Overall I thought our defensive effort was good, we had little spells when they went on big runs where we got a little bit – I don't know if complacent is the word, but I called a timeout, guys responded well and I think really upped the intensity down the stretch. On nine different occasions, we got three stops in a row without an offensive rebound - we call those kills, a lot of coaches refer to that – and that's a lot. We turned them over, I thought our deflections were really good, played active with our hands. I've been around Spencer Legg for a long time, he's a really unique, special kid, for him to check in on senior night and bang a three was pretty cool, it was kind of like the cherry on the top."

Mikel Brown Jr. stayed hot as he was yet again the Cards leading scorer for the fourth game in a row with 19 points with four rebounds and two assists.

J'Vonne Hadley led all seniors with 17 points, five rebounds, and three assists.

Kobe Rodgers was a key piece to the Cards' success with seven points off the bench and three assists, going perfect from the field, while four of the five Louisville starters shot into double figures today.

The Cardinals opened the game taking early control, as senior guard Isaac McKneely and freshman guard Brown combined for 14 of the first 20 points in an early ten-point lead for Louisville 20-10.

The Card's defense was on full display as Georgia Tech (11-17, 2-13 ACC) would experience multiple scoring droughts of over four minutes to start the game. However, the Yellow Jackets surged back with a 12-5 run over the last four minutes of the half to cut the lead down to 11.

Louisville (20-7, 9-5 ACC) took that lead into the break 42-31 after a last second three pointer by senior Ryan Conwell, with Brown as the leading scorer at halftime for the Cards with 10. Georgia Tech's Baye Ndongo matched that with 10 of his own going into the break. The Yellow Jacket's own Cole Kirouac boasted six rebounds in the first half as well.

The Cards opened the second half with a surge of buckets, going on a 13-0 run and leaving Georgia Tech with two 4-minute scoring droughts. Louisville would take this momentum to deliver a 25-point lead 64-39, their largest of the game. The Yellow Jackets would respond with a run of their own, cutting the lead down to 11 after a 14-0 run encouraged by Akai Fleming and Kirouac with just under eight minutes to play.

Louisville turned to its starting seniors, who took over for the rest of the game. McKneely, Hadley, and Conwell would lead the Cardinals the rest of the way with a combined total of 24 of the teams 45 points in the second half, leading to a Cardinals win, 87-70. Conwell got back to his scoring ways with 10 in the second half, and McNeely went 2-2 from beyond the arc.

Louisville would finish the game going 52% from the field (27-52), while also shooting an impressive 45% from beyond the three-point line (14-31).

The most noteworthy stat, however, would be the nearly perfect free-throw percentage of 95% (19-20), a season high for the Cards. Louisville also our rebounded and out assisted the Yellow Jackets 30-29 and 15-13 respectively.

Georgia Tech's Ndongo led the way with 17, with Fleming trailing just behind him with 15. Four out of the five Yellow Jacket's starters finished in double figures.

Louisville will return to action Monday, February 23^rd at 7 p.m. ET in a big road test against the No. 16 ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in the Dean Smith Center.

University of Louisville Athletics

Seniors Shine in Sendoff as Cards Cruise to 87-70 Victory Over Georgia Tech

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Players Mentioned

Mikel Brown Jr.

Ryan Conwell

J'Vonne Hadley

Spencer Legg

Isaac McKneely

Kobe Rodgers

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