Cardinals get 1st win in Big East with victory over Mountaineers
Louisville welcomed back Earl Clark from a one-game absence and got their first win in conference play, a 63-54 win over West Virginia on Thursday night.
Clark was absent from the game this past Saturday against Kentucky, due to a violation of team rules. Clark finished the night with a double-double, scoring 11 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Jerry Smith led Louisville (11-4, 1-1) with 14 points and Edgar Sosa added 10 points off the bench.
The Cardinals weren’t as crisp as they would’ve like to have been, shooting 41 percent, but their terrific defense was the difference in the game, holding West Virginia to just 36 percent shooting on the night. The Mountaineers (11-4, 1-2)had trouble almost from the opening tap trying to solve the variety of pressure defenses from Louisville, from their full court press to their ball-hawking half-court defensive sets.
Joe Alexander paced West Virginia with 22 points, but he received very little help from his supporting cast. Alex Ruoff, West Virginia’s leading scorer, finished with 13 points on just 4-of-13 shooting, including a dreadful 3-of-10 from beyond the arc.
With the game all square at 22, Louisville closed out the first half on a 10-2 run, taking a 32-24 lead into halftime, and the Cardinals never trailed in the second 20-minute frame. West Virginia trailed by as little as six in the second half, but Louisville had an answer, either in the form of basket or defensive stop, each time the Mountaineers attempted to put together a run to get back in the game.
Louisville will head to Rutgers to face off against the Scarlet Knights on Sunday at noon, while West Virginia will return home to square off against Syracuse on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Tags: Big East Basketball, louisville cardinals, NCAA Men's basketball, West Virginia Mountaineers