Louisville Falls To Arkansas State

Mark BlankenbakerDecember 14, 2023

UofL men’s basketball fell to Arkansas State on Wednesday night 75-63 in the KFC Yum! Center.

“It feels like we had a pretty good game plan coming into this game knowing who this team was that we were playing against,” said head coach Kenny Payne. “We knew that, traditionally, their DNA is the three-point shot, and the other important piece is the driving of the basketball and offensive rebounding. I am disappointed and frustrated that we worked on this for a few days and got in the game and did not execute and it falls on me, the staff, the players, all of us. Nobody is without blame and we all are talking about how we hold each other accountable more than we already do. No slight to their team. They came in here and beat us in every category pretty much.”

Arkansas State (4-7) led by as much as seven points in the first half, taking a 20-13 lead at the 10:46 mark. Louisville (4-6, 0-1 ACC) immediately scored seven points to tie up the game and was able to hold the Red Wolves scoreless for the final 3:47 of the period to take a 31-29 lead into the break.

Returning from halftime, the Red Wolves immediately used an 8-3 run to take a four-point lead at 17:09.

The Cardinals would cut it to two points twice before Arkansas State rattled off nine unanswered points in a minute and four seconds, to take a 49-38 lead with 14:47 on the clock. Louisville would get within nine but never closer.

Brandon Huntley-Hatfield had a career-high 20 points with 11 boards, netting 12 of 14 from the charity stripe. Louisville had two additional 10-point scorers in Mike James and Tre White.

Arkansas State was led by three double-digit scorers in Caleb Fields (20 points), Freddy Hicks (16) and Izaiyah Nelson (15). Nelson shot a perfect 7 for 7 from the floor and added eight boards.