Louisville pulls away to down Marshall
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Louisville, KY (SportsNetwork.com) - Chris Jones paced five Louisville players in double figures with 18 points as the seventh-ranked Cardinals posted an 85-67 victory over Marshall at the KFC Yum! Center.
Terry Rozier added 17 points and Wayne Blackshear had 16 for Louisville (3-0), which overcame a slow start and a troublesome shooting effort to prevail.
"I think that the most important thing is for us to understand what focus is all about. We lose focus based on missed shots and good teams don't do that," Cardinals coach Rick Pitino said.
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The Cardinals hit on just 38.6 percent of their field goal attempts and went 3-of-22 from 3-point range, but forced 21 Marshall turnovers that were converted into 24 points.
Montrezl Harrell contributed 12 points to the win, with Chinanu Onuaku recording a double-double of 10 points and 11 rebounds for Louisville.
Marshall (3-1), which had won its first three games -- albeit against far lesser competition -- by an average of 20 points, was led by Shawn Smith's 16 points and an impressive 15-point, 18-rebound, eight-assist effort from Ryan Taylor.
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"I thought we came in, we did pretty good for a while, but we let their pressure get us out of what we were doing," Marshall coach Dan D'Antoni said.
Louisville's shooting woes enabled the Thundering Herd to hang around through much of the first half, with Marshall owning a slim 20-18 edge following DeVince Boykins' slam with 8:35 remaining in the opening period.
The Cardinals then began to assume control, putting forth an 11-0 run that featured three dunks. Cheikh Sane converted a 3-point play to temporarily give Marshall some momentum, but Louisville answered with eight consecutive points to claim a 37-23 lead with three minutes to go in the half.
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Blackshear hit two free throws in the final minute to put Louisville up 41-27 at the break, with 14 of those points coming off 14 Marshall turnovers.
Louisville kept up its defensive effectiveness in the second half to make sure the Herd never threatened after the intermission. Marshall continued to struggle making shots, and the Cardinals effectively put the game away with an 11-2 run that was capped by a Jones 3-pointer, which staked Louisville to a commanding 58-36 lead with 13 minutes left.
The Cardinals maintained a comfortable differential the rest of the way, with Marshall never cutting the deficit under 13 points.
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Game Notes
Marshall has lost seven straight to the Cardinals and fell to 0-8 all-time in Louisville ... The game was part of the 2014 Global Sports Showcase, a five- time, round-robin event that also contains Cleveland State, Jacksonville State and Savannah State as participants ... The Thundering Herd won their first two games of the tournament, opening the season with wins over Jacksonville State and Savannah State ... The win was the 698th of Louisville head coach Rick Pitino's career.