Seven Cardinals Score Double Figures in Bahamas Victory 111-57

Mark BlankenbakerJuly 31, 2024

In its first showing in the Pat Kelsey era, Louisville Men’s Basketball defeated Bahamas Select 111-59 on Tuesday night in the opening exhibition game of the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League.

“It was just good to play against somebody else,” said head coach Kelsey following the victory. “We’ve been beating up on each other for the last two months. We can put the uniforms on for the first time and be under bright lights and play a game for real. It felt really good. I was proud of our guys. You look at the stat sheet in a game like that, it’s easy to start playing ‘me ball’ and our guys didn’t do that. They continued to give up good shots for great shots and I was proud of them.”

The Cardinals started hot, scoring the first 13 points of the game. Nine of those 13 points belonged to fifth year forward Kasean Pryor who netted back-to-back 3’s to open the night. Louisville made five of its first eight attempts in the contest.

UofL closed the first half on an 11-1 run to extend its lead to 29 points. At the break, Pryor had 14 points while junior guard Koren Johnson had 13. The Cardinals had 20 team assists on 23 made baskets in the first half alone.

In the second half, the Cards didn’t let up. Louisville used a 13-2 run between 15:37 and 10:03 to go up by 42. The run included three 3-pointers from three different players: freshman Khani Rooths, senior Reyne Smith and fifth year senior Terrence Edwards Jr.

Louisville led by as much as 55 points in the waning minutes of the contest.

UofL shared the ball well, racking up the assists and evening out the scoring. Seven Cardinals finished in double figures: Pryor, Rooths, Smith, Edwards Jr., Aboubacar Traore, Koren Johnson, J’Vonne Hadley.

The team shot 50.6% from the floor and 42.6% from downtown, nailing 20 shots beyond the arc. Louisville recorded 38 assists on 43 buckets.

Hadley led the way for the Cards in scoring with 18 points, going 8 of 10 from the field.

The Cardinals will wrap up their foreign tour in the Bahamas with their second and final exhibition game on Thursday at noon ET. Louisville will take on the University of Calgary Dinos from Nassau. The game will be broadcast on radio on 93.9 The Ville and streamed on the Floyd Street Media YouTube channel.