No. 11 Louisville rode 12 first-half 3-pointers, including four from Adrian Wooley, to an easy 99-73 win over visiting Memphis Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinals placed three scorers into double digits by intermission after shooting 60.7% from the floor (17 of 28) and 54.5% from 3-point range (12 of 22).
Louisville (9-1) was paced by Ryan Conwell, who had 17 points, including three 3-pointers. Mikel Brown Jr. added 16 points featuring 8-for-9 free-throw shooting, while Wooley tied a season-high with 15 points on 5-for-8 3-point shooting.
Fellow reserve Kasean Pryor (who had previously scored 13 points all season) scored 11 points, including 3-for-3 3-point shooting. Forward Sananda Fru added 11 points on 5-for-5 shooting and six rebounds, and Khani Rooths chipped in 10 points and eight rebounds.
Memphis (4-5) was led by Hasan Abdul Hakim, who tallied 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting in only his third game played this season for the Tigers after battling a quadriceps injury. The season’s leading scorer, Dug McDaniel, added 16 points, with a dozen points coming in the second half. Reserve Sincere Parker tallied 12 points.
Memphis hung around early, trailing just 17-13 after a three-point play from Abdul Hakim with 10:52 left in the first half. But Louisville made nine 3-pointers in just over seven minutes to open a 50-30 advantage on a Brown trey with 3:18 remaining. Louisville led 57-37 at the half.
After Zach Davis scored the first basket of the second half for Memphis, the Cardinals pushed the edge to 71-43 on a Conwell 3-pointer with 15:46 remaining. Memphis never pulled closer than 20 points after that.
The Cardinals made 18 of 35 (51.4%) 3-pointers and threatened their season-best 20 3-pointers, set in a 104-47 win over NJIT on Nov. 26th. The program’s single-game record remains 22 3-pointers against Hartford in November 2007.
Conversely, Memphis was 3-for-11 from 3-point range (27.3%) and 41.2% overall (28 of 68).
