Louisville rolls to 4-0 with win over Hartford
The No. 2/3 Louisville Cardinals improved to 4-0 with a relatively easy win over Hartford Tuesday night. The Cardinals finished the game with four players in double figures led by 20 points from Montrezl Harrell.
After the game, Louisville coach Rick Pitino addressed his team's win as well as the rampant speculation about Kevin Ware's recent missed court appearance for a speeding ticket.
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Louisville started the game with an 8-0 run and increased its lead to 20-7 by the 12 minute mark of the first half. The Cardinals were shooting better than 60 percent for most of the first half, and led 27-11 by the seven minute mark.
Louisville's hot shooting cooled a bit by halftime, but they went into the locker room up 42-21 while hitting 15 of 30 shots. Smith finished the half leading all scorers with 11 points in 12 minutes.
The second half was more of the same from the Cardinals as they built a 39 point lead with just over a minute left before closing out an 87-48 win.
In addition to Harrell's 20 points and nine rebounds, Russ Smith scored 14 and Chris Jones and Chane Behanan each had 11.
Hartford never led in the game and, although they shot 41.9 percent for the game, had 25 turnovers and were out-rebounded 35-29.
"I give tremendous respect to Louisville," Hartford coach John Gallagher said. "... We didn't expect to get out-toughed and out-manned in every phase of the game, but we did. And you have to give credit to Coach Pitino and Louisville."
Louisville played 12 players in the blowout win, 10 of whom played 13 or more minutes.