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This is sort of uncharted territory, so I'm not really sure where to begin.
Louisville played in the quarterfinal round of its conference tournament on Thursday, and it won by 61 points. Sixty-one. Roger Maris.
The Cards held the Scarlet Knights to 16 first half points and forced 17 first half turnovers to take a 58-16 lead into the break. Somehow, they managed to build on that total in the second 20 minutes.
Five Louisville players scored in double figures, led by Chris Jones' 18 points, while no one for Rutgers managed to net more than eight (Myles Mack).
Perhaps this sums the afternoon up best:
FINAL: Louisville 92, Rutgers 31. If Louisville's starters had not scored a single point, the Cardinals would have won 32-31.
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 13, 2014
THE RECORD BOOKS: They opened for this rout. U of L eclipsed its own previous record for margin of victory (48 points) in an American Athletic Conference game - also set this season against Rutgers - with the 61-point win. The 92 total points scored by the Cardinals were also a program record in a conference tournament. And the Cardinals set the top mark this season in a Division I game for points off turnovers when they reached 42 - with five minutes to play.
Again, I'm not really sure what else to say. This was a beatdown the likes of which we've rarely seen during the non-conference portion of a season, let alone in a league tournament.
The only downside to a performance like this - outside of there being a potential injury (which thankfully didn't happen) - is the possibility of the Cards getting complacent and looking past Friday night's game against Houston. The good news is this team has not done that all season, and I can't imagine they would start now.
If Louisville is able to take care of the Cougars tomorrow night, it will be their ninth straight conference tournament victory and 11th straight postseason victory overall.
Here's your full box score:
Rutgers Scarlet Knights |
||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
Kadeem Jack, C | 3-9 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 7 | ||
Wally Judge, F | 2-9 | 0-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 | ||
J.J. Moore, F | 1-8 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | ||
Myles Mack, G | 3-8 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 | ||
Jerome Seagears, G | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | ||
BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
Stephen Zurich, F | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
Junior Etou, F | 1-5 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | ||
Greg Lewis, F | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | ||
Kerwin Okoro, G | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||
Craig Brown, G | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
D'Von Campbell, G | 1-4 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | ||
Malick Kone, G | 0-3 | 0-0 | 2-4 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||
TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
12-50 | 3-16 | 4-8 | 8 | 25 | 33 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 26 | 19 | 31 | |||
24.0% | 18.8% | 50.0% | ||||||||||||
Louisville Cardinals | ||||||||||||||
STARTERS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
Stephan Van Treese, F | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||
Luke Hancock, F | 4-10 | 1-6 | 4-6 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 13 | ||
Montrezl Harrell, F | 6-10 | 0-0 | 1-5 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 13 | ||
Russ Smith, G | 4-7 | 1-3 | 7-8 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 16 | ||
Chris Jones, G | 7-14 | 4-7 | 0-1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 18 | ||
BENCH | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
Akoy Agau, F | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | ||
Mangok Mathiang, F | 0-4 | 0-0 | 3-4 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
Terry Rozier, G | 5-10 | 1-4 | 3-4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | ||
Tim Henderson, G | 2-4 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | ||
Wayne Blackshear, G | 3-6 | 0-3 | 2-2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||
David Levitch, G | 0-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
TOTALS | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | OREB | DREB | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PF | PTS | ||
32-70 | 8-27 | 20-30 | 18 | 32 | 50 | 16 | 19 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 92 | |||
45.7% | 29.6% | 66.7% |
Technical Fouls: PLAYERS: 1 RUTGERS ( Mack 1 ) - TEAMS: None