National Basketball Association
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Louisville 80, South Florida 54
When: 7:00 PM ET, Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Where: KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, Kentucky
Officials: # Chris Beaver, # John Higgins, # Mike Roberts
Attendance: 21655
By SportsDirect Inc.


No. 5 Louisville 80, South Florida 54: Russ Smith led four players in double figures with 19 points as the host Cardinals downed the Bulls for their fifth straight win.

Luke Hancock poured in 16 points, Montrezl Harrell added 14 and Terry Rozier scored 13 off the bench for Louisville (22-4, 11-2 AAC), which will attempt to close its one-game gap on the road Saturday against conference-leading No. 9 Cincinnati. The Cardinals collected 17 offensive rebounds and forced 20 turnovers – leading to 26 more shot attempts (71-45) – to overcome a 3-of-18 effort from the 3-point line.

Victor Rudd had a season-high 27 points and 10 rebounds for South Florida (12-15, 3-11), which has dropped four straight and 13 of 17. No other Bull finished with more than seven points as the nation’s worst 3-point shooting team went 1-of-10 beyond the arc.

South Florida shot 57.9 percent in the opening 20 minutes, but Louisville forced 10 turnovers and grabbed eight offensive rebounds to get up 16 more shot attempts. Smith sparked an early 11-2 run to break open a tie game while Mangok Mathiang’s three-point play capped a 16-7 surge over the final 6:51 allowed the Cardinals to take a 46-28 lead into the break.

Louisville missed six of its first seven shots after halftime as the Bulls closed to within 12, but South Florida could get no closer as it went 6½ minutes without a field goal. After Rudd hit a jumper to end the drought, Hancock drilled a 3-pointer with 6:09 left and the Cardinals closed it out with five easy baskets down the stretch as the margin swelled to 27 in the final minutes.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Smith (1,697 career points) passed Billy Thompson and Wes Unseld for sole possession of 10th place on the school’s all-time scoring list. … Louisville improved to 29-4 all-time against South Florida, including 15-1 under coach Rick Pitino. … The Cardinals, whose average margin of victory during the winning streak is 26 points, have led by at least 18 at intermission in each of their last four games.

Top Game Performances
 
South Florida   Louisville
Victor Rudd 27 Scoring Russ Smith 19
Shemiye McLendon 4 Assists Luke Hancock 3
Victor Rudd 10 Rebounds Stephan Van Treese 8
Victor Rudd 4 Free Throws Made Luke Hancock 4
Corey Allen Jr. 1 Steals Chris Jones 3
John Egbunu 1 Blocks Mangok Mathiang 1
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Points FG% 3PM-3PA FTM-FTA Assists Rebounds Blocks Steals Turnovers
South Florida 54 48.9 1-10 9-14 13 30 2 2 20
Louisville 80 47.9 3-18 9-13 14 34 2 10 8