No. 6 Louisville rafts into Ohio River rival territory to sort out Cincinnati

A protracted-time rivalry between Ohio River rivals renews Friday night time when No. 6 Louisville visits Cincinnati.

The Cardinals (4-0) are among the many quickest risers within the polls because the begin of the season, leaping six spots to No. 6 after rolling previous one other rival — Kentucky 96-88 — behind star freshman Mikel Brown Jr., who tallied a team-high 29 factors.

Whereas Friday’s recreation is in Cincinnati, the annual Hoops Basic at Heritage Financial institution Heart shall be performed on the impartial downtown web site, not the UC campus.

The 2 faculties had been as soon as bitter rivals in numerous conferences, together with the Missouri Valley Convention, Metro Convention, Convention USA and Huge East earlier than Louisville left for the ACC and Cincinnati wound up within the Huge 12.

Louisville adopted up its emotional victory over Kentucky with a 106-81 win over Ohio on Saturday, and has scored 100 factors in three video games in a single season for the primary time because the 2010-2011 season.

“I’m pleased with our guys,” stated Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey, who’s a Cincinnati native. “Coming off a recreation that was the magnitude of the one the opposite night time by way of hype, I fearful just a little bit about human nature, whether or not there could be some type of let down. However that goes in opposition to the whole lot we consider in. … I believed our guys had been phenomenal in preparation and had been on the main points.”

Cincinnati (4-0) can also be excellent in its first 4 video games, together with a win over in-state rival Dayton. The Bearcats, nevertheless, are coming off a considerably sluggish recreation wherein they trailed 36-30 at halftime earlier than pulling away for a 72-55 win over Mount. St. Mary’s on Sunday.

Cincinnati pulled away with a 19-2 run throughout a seven-minute stretch to take a 61-50 lead with 6:22 remaining.

Day Day Thomas scored a game-high 16 factors and went an ideal 3-for-3 from past the arc. He additionally added season highs of 5 assists and 5 rebounds. Freshman guard Keyshuan Tillery chipped in a career-best 9 factors in 14 minutes.

Cincinnati’s guard play shall be examined by Louisville’s top-10 roster. The Cardinals have 4 guards averaging double figures in scoring via 4 video games.

“There’s only a ton of nice guard play,” Cincinnati coach Wes Miller stated of Louisville. “Mikel Brown – I believe the flexibility is there in each means. He is received the flexibility to make each learn within the open courtroom in house and on decide and roll. He is received nice dimension. He shoots at a extremely excessive fee, off the catch, off the dribble. The one factor you may say is he is nonetheless younger, however he would not play younger.

Along with Brown, Ryan Conwell performs a outstanding function for Louisville. Conwell was on the Xavier roster final season, and Miller stated he was the hardest participant for his staff to protect when he was with the Musketeers.

“It is onerous to recreation plan for any 4 of them individually as a result of there’s any individual else on the market on the courtroom,” Miller stated. ” … A number of groups you will play in opposition to have one man that you could actually deal with. Louisville has 4.”

–Area Stage Media