Louisville Falls to No. 12 Tennessee

“Obviously extremely disappointed,” said head coach Pat Kelsey. “[The KFC] Yum! Center was electric, we asked people to come out, they came out big. It was as elite of a college basketball atmosphere as you’re going to find anywhere. The fact of the matter is, they were the better team tonight. [Tennessee] punched us in the mouth from the very beginning. The only way to describe it is they beat us in almost every single facet of the game. My message to the players after the game was, I told them the one thing that they don’t have to worry about is us being good. The one thing they don’t have to worry about is us being good. We're going to become a good team. I believe that, deep down in my soul, with every single fiber of my being, and we've got a long way to go. It was a heck of a test, obviously, we’ve got to credit Coach [Rick] Barnes and his staff and his players.”

The Volunteers opened the game with 10 straight points, holding Louisville without a bucket for the first five and a half minutes. The drought was ended with a Reyne Smith 3-pointers.

Tennessee tacked on a 17-3 run to extend its lead to 38-16, but the run was stopped by a four-point play by Noah Waterman. The play turned into 10 straight points for the Cardinals. The Vols scored the last bucket of the half, leading a halftime score of 40-26.

Louisville started the second half stronger, defensively, forcing four Tennessee turnovers between 16:50 and 13:31, holding the Vols without any field goals in that same time frame.

Smith hit back-to-back 3’s to pull the Cards within single digits, but Tennessee’s Zeigler quickly responded with a heat check 3-pointer. The 3 started a 22-5 run for the Volunteers, extending their lead to 69-43 with 6:30 to go. Louisville scored eight straight to get back, but Tennessee proved to be too much, halting the run with six points of their own.

While Louisville forced 20 Tennessee miscues and logged 12 steals, the Volunteers outrebounded the Cardinals 40-26, scoring 15 second chance points. Louisville shot 26.7% from the floor while Tennessee fired off a 56.6% clip.

Smith netted four triples and led Louisville in scoring with 18 points. He added five boards and one assist. Waterman joined in him double-digit scoring with 10 points and three 3-pointers.

Both Chaz Lanier and Zakai Zeigler scored 19 apiece for the Vols, making a combined seven 3’s.

UofL has 10 days before facing crosstown foe Bellarmine on Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. in the KFC Yum! Center. The game will be broadcast on ACCNX.