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 Temple had no answer for No. 13 Louisville on Friday night on the
offensive or defensive ends of the floor. The Cardinals rushed out
to a 27-point halftime lead and coasted to an 82-58 victory behind
sophomore forward Montrezl Harrell's career night.
"Montrezl played one of his best games of the season," Louisville
coach Rick Pitino said. "I think the one good thing about our
basketball team, they don't pay attention to records, they just say
we're going to play hard regardless of who the opponent is."
Harrell finished with a career-high 22 points, tearing through the
Temple frontcourt with a bevy of post moves and high-flying dunks in
transition. The 6-foot-8 forward posted his fifth double-double of
the season by grabbing 10 rebounds and tied his career high with
four blocked shots.
"(Harrell) competes on every possession. He had a couple of easy
jump-hook shots in the lane," Temple coach Fran Dunphy said. "He's
shooting I think 60 percent, he's got a great percentage because
he's so tough down inside. He's hard for us to guard, there's no
question about it."
Louisville's scoring was not limited to Harrell. Senior guard Russ
Smith had 15 points, junior forward Will Blackshear scored 13 and
senior forward Luke Hancock finished with 11 to join Harrell in
double figures.
"I thought everybody played well." Pitino said. "(Blackshear) when
he goes to the four-spot drives much more. He doesn't drive as much
at the three. All the guys did a lot of good things."
Cardinals guard Chris Jones may have been overshadowed by his
teammates in the scoring department but still left his mark on the
game. The 5-foot-10 junior scored nine points and had game-highs in
both assists with five and steals with three.
Temple (6-17, 1-10 AAC), which came into the game as the only
Division I team with four players averaging 14 or more points per
game, saw just two, junior guard Will Cummings and junior forward
Anthony Lee, reach double figures.
Cummings finished with 16 points and Lee, who limped off the court
with 10:26 left in the second half favoring a knee, had 14.
Lee said the injury is nothing serious.
"It's sore right now. It buckled," he said. "I wanted to come back
in, but there was no need to because of the lead, so the coaches
just sat me out for the rest of the game."
The Owls shot just 37.3 percent from the field and the Cardinals
(20-4, 9-2) shot 51.6 percent.
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"I think they're obviously a highly-ranked team for a reason.
They're really talented. They do some really good things on both
ends of the court," Dunphy said. "They're extremely tough
defensively. What they do is hurry you up. We turned it in the
frontcourt too many times, especially in the first half."
Louisville led 52-25 at halftime. The Cardinals were buoyed by a
strong defensive performance and an offense that ran through Harrell
and Hancock.
The Owls were held to 34.5 percent shooting from the floor,
including 25 percent from beyond the 3-point line. Louisville, on
the other hand, shot 62.5 percent from the field and 60 percent from
3-point range.
Louisville's defense made Temple uncomfortable for the entire half,
forcing the Owls into many bad shots. Temple committed eight
first-half turnovers and Louisville had just two.
The Cardinals opened the game on a 21-9 run in the first nine
minutes. Harrell scored 10 of his 15 first-half points in the first
8:06 of the game. He had two huge dunks, one come on an alley-oop
from guard Chris Jones and the other coming off a Temple turnover.
"Some of the guards or whoever had the ball, they got into the lane,
(and) you have to help and recover," Lee said. "(Harrell) was able
to get a lot of dump-off and dunks just from the passing that was
going on."
NOTES: Temple has now lost 12 of their last 13 games and won only
once since the new year. ... Temple and Louisville have short
turnarounds. The Owls host SMU on Sunday and the Cardinals travel to
Rutgers on Sunday. ... Entering Friday's game, Temple was the only
team in Division I to have four players averaging 14 points or more
per game. ... Louisville ranked third in the nation in steals (9.6
per game) and turnover margin (6.7). ... The game featured the
American Athletic Conference's first- and third-leading rebounders:
Temple's Anthony Lee (9.2 rpg) and Louisville's Montrezl Harrell
(8.2 rpg). ... Temple last beat a ranked team on March 10, 2013,
when it knocked off No. 21 Virginia Commonwealth.
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