SLU suffers first loss of season, 77-57 to Louisville
NEW YORK -- Trey Lewis had 22 points and Mangok Mathiang had career highs of 17 points and 13 rebounds as Louisville pulled away for a 77-57 victory over Saint Louis on Saturday night in the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational at Barclays Center.
The Cardinals (5-0) were in a back-and-forth game with the Billikens (4-1) until they turned to full-court pressure and kept up their huge rebounding advantage.
Louisville led 30-27 at halftime and the lead was the same when the Cardinals finally put a run together. Lewis and Damion Lee, the two graduate transfers on Louisville's roster, had four points each in a 10-0 run that made it 51-38. The Billikens never got closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
Mike Crawford led Saint Louis with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 4 of 5 on 3s. Milik Yarbrough added 14 points.
What made the Cardinals' win even more impressive was that they managed to go just 5 of 17 from 3-point range, including 1 of 10 in the first half. Saint Louis was 8 of 16 from behind the arc but that didn't help much with Louisville finishing with a 36-14 rebound advantage. The 6-foot-10 Mathiang, a junior, outrebounded the Billikens by three himself.
"They're a big physical team and we weren't really able to rebound with them at all and (Mathiang) was really good tonight," Saint Louis coach Jim Crews said. "They were getting buckets near the rim and since they were long, we weren't getting buckets near the rim and I thought that was the main difference."
Lee and Quentin Snider each had 10 points for the Cardinals, who won in their first game this season away from home. They outscored Saint Louis 40-20 in the paint and 13-2 on second-chance points.
Louisville's other big advantage came at the free-throw line, where the Cardinals were 20 of 25 compared to the Billikens' 9 of 14.
OLD FACE: Lewis was familiar to the Louisville coaching staff. Last November, Lewis had 24 points in Louisville's win over Cleveland State that was the 700th for Cardinals coach Rick Pitino.
UNDERHANDED MOVE: The crowd at Barclays Center had its biggest buzz early in the second half when Louisville's Chinanu Onuaku went to the free-throw line for the first time and took the shots underhanded, a la Rick Barry in the old days.
Onuaku went to the underhanded style after shooting 46.7 from the line as a freshman. He worked on the new technique all summer and with the 1-for-2 effort Saturday he is 3 for 5 this season.
TIP-INS:
Louisville: The Cardinals lead the series 47-20. ... Louisville is 32-6 on neutral courts the last four seasons. Half the losses have come in NCAA Tournament regionals. ... The Cardinals are 35-3 in November the last seven seasons and they have won 11 straight in the month.
Saint Louis: The Billikens entered the game with four players averaging in double figures. ... Saint Louis is 3-3 at Barclays Center. The Billikens won the 2013 Atlantic 10 Tournament here in 2013. ... Saint Louis and Duke were the only teams last season to have a freshman lead them in points, rebounds, assists and steals.
UP NEXT:
Louisville is at No. 3 Michigan State on Wednesday.
Saint Louis hosts Morehead State on Wednesday.
