Smith ratings 24 as No. 7 Louisville leadings Temple
When preseason All-America guard Russ Smith is playing his finest, guarding national champ Louisville appears like one of the country's leading groups once again.
When he gets the kind of help he obtained from colleagues Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier in Thursday night's 88-66 rout of Temple, the seventh-ranked Cardinals show up almost unstoppable.
Smith had 24 points, moving into 8th put on the college's career scoring list, Harrell included 21 and freshman Terry Rozier scored a career-high 19 as Louisville capped an excellent February with its seventh straight success.
The trio integrated to shoot 25 of 34 from the field and almost outscored Holy place all by themselves. Louisville fired 53 percent (32 of 60) and has actually won 13 of its last 15 games.
Louisville's busy attack usually begins with Smith and often dones with a dunk from Harrell. Smith was 8 of 12 from the field and 7 for 8 from the free throw line. Harrell shot 9 of 12 and had 4 dunks to expand his institution record of 69 slams on the season.
" The ball is streaming fantastic," Smith stated." We're pushing the round which is essential. ... Simply being able to leave and put the pressure on the protection creates a wonderful group offensively.".
The Cardinals had 21 fast-break indicate two for Temple.
" Those 2, it's a lot of transition," Owls guard Will certainly Cummings claimed of Smith and Harrell." That's where they really hurt us. We were taking a lot of bad gos sometimes on infraction. That kind of resulted in their change which's exactly what they thrive off.".
5 days after drawing within a half-game of first-place Cincinnati with a road win over the Bearcats, the Cardinals (24-4, 13-2 American Sports Conference) followed up by finishing a period sweep of the outmanned Owls (7-20, 2-13).
Cummings scored 18 factors and Quenton DeCosey added 17 for the Owls. Holy place has actually lost 15 of 17 considering that New Year's Day, including an eight-game losing streak to start 2014.
Louisville trainer Rick Pitino claimed this season's team could be better on crime compared to in 2012's title-winning group when newcomers Rozier and Chris Jones are factored in, together with last year's Last Four Most Superior Player Luke Hancock.
" I think we have a great deal of truly good offending weapons which can put the round on the floor," Pitino shared." We are not as excellent defensively as in 2012, but we are a far better offensive team from a performance viewpoint.".
Rozier go 8 of 10 from the industry, including 3 of 4 on 3-pointers. Jones had a season-high eight helps and Hancock struck 3 Fives to rack up nine factors.
Smith has full marks for Rozier, the positioned freshman which skipped the swan song to locate his elderly captain for the game-winner versus Cincinnati.
" Terry Rozier is a sponge," Smith shared." He wants to find out. He's figured out to be possibly the most effective gamer in the nation. He's visiting be that real quickly. I'm simply quite grateful and privileged to be around a fresher like that.
" If he was a starter somewhere else or playing starter minutes (below), folks would truly be talking about him the means they talk about a lot of these other freshmen.".
After Holy place buyinged the opening basket, the Cardinals clicked off a 13-0 run that developed their prominence. They were promptly up 24-6 merely greater than 7 minutes into the game just before Holy place responded with a 7-0 eruption that reduced the Louisville cause single numbers.
The Owls once more pulled within nine on Cummings' standard jumper with 5:34 left in the first half, the closest they would certainly come the remainder of the game. Smith and Cummings led their teams with 13 points each at the break as Louisville led 42-29 at halftime.
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Louisville was even better in the 2nd one-half, stretching its 67-47 lead with 9:55 left to 28 factors in less than 2 mins. The Cardinals' largest lead was 29 with 1:15 staying just before Holy place buyinged the last seven factors.
