LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville men’s basketball didn’t get shots to fall and struggled mightily on the boards Monday night, dropping its final exhibition against Kentucky Wesleyan, 71-68, at the KFC Yum! Center.
The Cardinals were outrebounded 47-33 by the Panthers, including 16 offensive rebounds that became 18 second-chance points, and shot 34% from the field.
“Hats off to Wesleyan,” UofL head coach Kenny Payne said. “They did a great job. They came in here and they were more physical than us, obvious by the 47 to 33 rebounds. We seemed to just ball watch, which we talked about, and they seemed to attack the ball. At times, we looked like defensively we had it figured out, we just could not sustain it. This game is hard. Winning is hard. It takes a commitment by every person that has a jersey and every coach. I hope that we've learned from this because look, I'm trying to get them to buy into something that's difficult. … But again, it's not good enough. It's not good enough. Hopefully, we learn from this, all of us, coaches, myself, and players, because it's not acceptable to go out and the other team is more physical than you, played harder than you, played tougher than you as if you don’t understand what this is.”
UofL made 31 of 38 free throws (82%) in the game, but it wasn’t enough to offset a cold shooting night from the floor that included a 28% clip in the first half.
Despite that, the Cards led by as much as six in the first half at 20-14 after a three-point play by sophomore guard Tre White.
Kentucky Wesleyan rallied to tie it at 26-all by halftime, and a 6-0 run later pushed the Panthers back in front 45-43 with 9:37 remaining.
Louisville’s last lead came at 49-47 on a 3-pointer by redshirt sophomore guard/forward Mike James at the 6:09 mark. Kentucky Wesleyan countered with another 6-0 run and never relinquished the lead, although the Cardinals cut it to one in the waning seconds.
“It doesn't count thankfully, and it was good to get hit in the mouth early,” senior forward JJ Traynor said. “We have a lot of freshmen with not as much experience so now they know what it is. We know what we need to work on and improve on. I feel like we guard pretty well, but offensively, we didn't share the ball and we have to get those loose balls.”
Sophomore guard Skyy Clark paced Louisville with 24 points and seven rebounds, finishing 3-for-5 from 3-point range.
James added 16 points, six boards and four steals, while White tacked on 11 points and seven rebounds.
Borja Fernandez led five Kentucky Wesleyan players in double figures with 19 points.
Louisville will officially begin its regular season next week at home against UMBC at 7 p.m. ET Nov. 6. The game will stream on ACC Network Extra.
“It’s just something to go back to the drawing board on and pull up the clips on film,” Clark said. “It's something that we really need to harp on in practice, and we have to go even harder now.”
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