National Basketball Association
Louisville 83, Rutgers 76
When: 6:00 PM ET, Saturday, January 4, 2014
Where: Louis Brown Athletic Center, Piscataway, New Jersey
Officials:
# Jose Carrion, # Wally Rutecki, # Mike Sanzere
Attendance:
7263
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 10 Louisville 83, Rutgers 76: Russ Smith scored 11 of his 22 points down the stretch as the visiting Cardinals held off the Scarlet Knights.
Luke Hancock made all 10 of his free throws en route to 15 points for Louisville (13-2, 2-0 AAC), which was 41-of-46 from the line. Terry Rozier scored 14 points off the bench and Wayne Blackshear finished with 13.
Myles Mack led Rutgers (7-8, 1-1) with 19 points but had six of his team's 19 turnovers. Craig Brown came off the bench to contribute 17 points and Kadeem Jack had 12 for the Scarlet Knights, who had won three in a row.
Rutgers scored the first seven points of the game and led by as many as eight in the first half, but Louisville closed the stanza on a 13-4 run to take a six-point lead into the break. The Scarlet Knights went the final four minutes of the first half and nearly three minutes into the second without a field goal, and Chris Jones' back-to-back hoops put the Cardinals up 47-35 with 17 minutes left.
The hosts pulled within single digits moments later before Rozier knocked down a 3-pointer to ignite a 10-2 burst and Stephan Van Treese had another to put Louisville up 64-51 with seven minutes remaining. Smith hit nine of his 14 free throws in the final four-plus minutes to keep hard-charging Rutgers at bay, as the lead never got lower than six points.
GAME NOTEBOOK: The 41 made free throws established a new school record for a conference game, eclipsing the old mark of 39 against Virginia Tech in 1986. ... Smith's last two free throws gave him 1,501 points for his career. ... Louisville has won eight straight meetings between the former Big East foes.
Top Game Performances
| Louisville |
|
Rutgers |
|
Russ Smith 22 |
Scoring |
Myles Mack 19 |
|
Wayne Blackshear 2 |
Assists |
Myles Mack 4 |
|
Montrezl Harrell 7 |
Rebounds |
Junior Etou 6 |
|
Russ Smith 14 |
Free Throws Made |
Craig Brown 6 |
|
Montrezl Harrell 3 |
Steals |
Wally Judge 2 |
|
Wayne Blackshear 2 |
Blocks |
Greg Lewis 2 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Louisville
|
83 |
43.5 |
2-10 |
41-46 |
7 |
29 |
4 |
15 |
17 |
| Rutgers
|
76 |
41.4 |
4-18 |
24-32 |
13 |
28 |
4 |
9 |
19 |