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At the end of a week which has felt like it's lasted about two months, it's only fitting that Louisville played a basketball game that seemed to take five hours.
U of L dug itself into an eight-point hole during the game's opening segment and never looked particularly impressive, but did walk out of the Rutgers Athletic Center with an 83-76 victory. The Cards now finally get to come back home and will bring a 2-0 conference record with them.
Russ Smith led Louisville with 22 points, 14 of which came at the free-throw line. As a team, the Cards knocked down a remarkable 41-of-46 (89.1%) attempts from the charity stripe. Luke Hancock (15), Terry Rozier (14) and Wayne Blackshear (13) all finished in double figures.
Louisville will now return home for the first time since Dec. 17 when it hosts old rival Memphis on Thursday.
Here's your final box score:
| Louisville Cardinals | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Montrezl Harrell, F | 3-5 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 6 | ||
| Mangok Mathiang, F | 0-3 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Russ Smith, G | 4-11 | 0-1 | 14-16 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 22 | ||
| Wayne Blackshear, G | 3-7 | 0-2 | 7-8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 13 | ||
| Chris Jones, G | 3-6 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 6 | ||
| BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Stephan Van Treese, F | 1-1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
| Luke Hancock, F | 2-4 | 1-3 | 10-10 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 15 | ||
| Tim Henderson, G | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Terry Rozier, G | 3-7 | 1-2 | 7-7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 14 | ||
| Anton Gill, G | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| 20-46 | 2-10 | 41-46 | 10 | 22 | 32 | 7 | 15 | 4 | 17 | 30 | 83 | |||
| 43.5% | 20.0% | 89.1% | ||||||||||||
| Rutgers Scarlet Knights | ||||||||||||||
| STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Wally Judge, F | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 | ||
| J.J. Moore, F | 3-8 | 2-4 | 1-2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 9 | ||
| Kadeem Jack, F | 3-9 | 0-0 | 6-7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 12 | ||
| Junior Etou, F | 4-7 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 10 | ||
| Myles Mack, G | 6-13 | 1-7 | 6-6 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 19 | ||
| BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| Greg Lewis, F | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | ||
| Craig Brown, G | 5-8 | 1-3 | 6-6 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 17 | ||
| Jerome Seagears, G | 2-8 | 0-2 | 1-2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | ||
| D'Von Campbell, G | 0-3 | 0-2 | 1-3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||
| TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
| 24-58 | 4-18 | 24-32 | 17 | 17 | 34 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 19 | 32 | 76 | |||
| 41.4% | 22.2% | 75.0% |
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