A protracted-time rivalry between Ohio River rivals renews Friday evening when No. 6 Louisville visits Cincinnati.
The Cardinals (4-0) are among the many quickest risers within the polls for the reason that begin of the season, leaping six spots to No. 6 after rolling previous one other rival — Kentucky 96-88 — behind star freshman Mikel Brown Jr., who tallied a team-high 29 factors.
Whereas Friday’s recreation is in Cincinnati, the annual Hoops Basic at Heritage Financial institution Heart might be performed on the impartial downtown website, not the UC campus.
The 2 colleges had been as soon as bitter rivals in varied conferences, together with the Missouri Valley Convention, Metro Convention, Convention USA and Large East earlier than Louisville left for the ACC and Cincinnati wound up within the Large 12.
Louisville adopted up its emotional victory over Kentucky with a 106-81 win over Ohio on Saturday, and has scored 100 factors in three video games in a single season for the primary time for the reason that 2010-2011 season.
“I’m happy with our guys,” stated Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey, who’s a Cincinnati native. “Coming off a recreation that was the magnitude of the one the opposite evening when it comes to hype, I anxious somewhat bit about human nature, whether or not there could be some form of let down. However that goes towards all the things we imagine in. … I believed our guys had been phenomenal in preparation and had been on the small print.”
Cincinnati (4-0) can be good in its first 4 video games, together with a win over in-state rival Dayton. The Bearcats, nonetheless, are coming off a considerably sluggish recreation through which they trailed 36-30 at halftime earlier than pulling away for a 72-55 win over Mount. St. Mary’s on Sunday.
Cincinnati pulled away with a 19-2 run throughout a seven-minute stretch to take a 61-50 lead with 6:22 remaining.
Day Day Thomas scored a game-high 16 factors and went an ideal 3-for-3 from past the arc. He additionally added season highs of 5 assists and 5 rebounds. Freshman guard Keyshuan Tillery chipped in a career-best 9 factors in 14 minutes.
Cincinnati’s guard play might be examined by Louisville’s top-10 roster. The Cardinals have 4 guards averaging double figures in scoring by means of 4 video games.
“There’s only a ton of nice guard play,” Cincinnati coach Wes Miller stated of Louisville. “Mikel Brown – I believe the flexibility is there in each manner. He is bought the flexibility to make each learn within the open court docket in house and on choose and roll. He is bought nice measurement. He shoots at a very excessive charge, off the catch, off the dribble. The one factor you may say is he is nonetheless younger, however he does not play younger.
Along with Brown, Ryan Conwell performs a distinguished position for Louisville. Conwell was on the Xavier roster final season, and Miller stated he was the hardest participant for his workforce to protect when he was with the Musketeers.
“It is laborious to recreation plan for any 4 of them individually as a result of there’s someone else on the market on the court docket,” Miller stated. ” … A whole lot of groups you will play towards have one man that you would be able to actually give attention to. Louisville has 4.”
–Discipline Stage Media
