Cards upend Cats in Battle of the Bluegrass
With one of the toughest schedules of Rick Pitino’s tenure, the ninth ranked Louisville Cardinals need to win on the road in the ACC. Already with a home loss to Virginia, the Cards needed this game against No. 23 Notre Dame to avoid falling to 0 – 2 in the conference.
Notre Dame needed only three players to score 64 of their points in their 77 – 70 victory over the Cardinals. Steve Vasturia (24 points), Matt Ferrell (22 points), Bonzie Colson (18 points) led the way for the Irish. The Irish one of the best shooting teams in the country finished at 43.9 percent from the floor, but hit 22 of 25 free throws for 88 percent.
Donovan Mitchell had his second straight solid game, leading U of L with 20 points. He also finished with four rebounds, five assists, and five steals.
The center position was a committee type position at the beginning of the season. However, Anas Mahmoud had another strong performance finishing with six blocks to go along with six points and four rebounds.
The shooting struggles that have plagued the Cards came back to haunt them against the Irish. They made 39.1 percent from the floor and hit only 7 – 27 from three point range for 25.9 percent.
U of L travels to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech on Saturday at 2:00. The Yellow Jackets are coming off of a 110 – 57 defeat against Duke.