Ryan Conwell returned to his hometown of Indianapolis and scored 21 points Saturday to lead sixth-ranked Louisville to an 87-78 victory over No. 22 Indiana in the CareSource Invitational.
The Cardinals jumped to a big lead and never looked back.
Coming off their first loss, primarily due to a slow start at No. 25 Arkansas on Wednesday, the Cardinals (8-1) made sure that would not happen a second straight time. They scored the first 16 points of the contest. Isaac McKneely drained a pair of 3-pointers to cap the run; the last trey came with 14:09 left in the first half.
Indiana (7-2) missed its first eight shots from the field. The Hoosiers pulled to 19-14 on a Lamar Wilkerson’s 3-pointer with 9:01 left, but the Cardinals withstood that rally and rebuilt the lead to 41-27 at halftime.
Wilkerson got Indiana back within single digits in the second half, but Conwell responded both times. The first was on a wide-open 3-pointer, and he made three free throws the next time.
The shots from the foul line started a 12-2 run that gave Louisville a 67-48 lead with 7:51 remaining. Indiana whittled the deficit to 83-76 on a Nick Dorn 3-pointer with 35 seconds remaining, but Mikel Brown Jr. and Conwell each made a pair of free throws to secure the win.
Conwell scored 20 or more points for the fifth time this season, thanks to going 10 of 11 from the free-throw line. He was one of five Cardinals to score in double figures. J’Vonne Hadley had 15 points, and McKneely also finished with 15, making 5 of 9 shots from 3-point range. Sananda Fru and Kobe Rodgers added a dozen points each.
Tucker DeVries led the Hoosiers with 26 points. He was just 5 of 14 from the field but made 12 of 13 from the line. Dorn had 15 points, and Wilkerson finished with 12.
The Hoosiers allowed the Cardinals to shoot 46.3% from the floor. Louisville also made 13 of 31 3-point shots for a 41.9% clip.
–Field Level Media
