Strong showing

December 28, 2007 02:07 pm

— LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Louisville Cardinals used an early second-half run to break open a close game and pull away for a 73-49 win over the Morehead State Eagles in front of a crowd of 19,366 Wednesday evening at Freedom Hall.
Louis-ville, now 8-3 on the season, was led by Terrence Williams and Jerry Smith who scored 17 points each. Derrick Caracter had 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds.
Morehead State, now 4-7, got 11 points from Kenneth Faried in a reserve role. Leon Buchanan had nine points. Nikola Stojakovic handed out a game-high eight assists.
The Eagles stayed close in the first half, holding some early leads and trailing only 30-27 at intermission. Faried made all four of his field goal attempts and led MSU with eight points. Stojakovic handed our six assists and committed only two turnovers in the first period. Williams had nine points and Earl Clark and Caracter had seven points each for Louisville in the first 20 minutes.
The Cardinals took command early in the second half, beginning the period on a 21-4 run to build their lead to 20 points, 51-31, at the 13:31 mark of the contest. They led by as many as 27 points before posting the 24-point win.
"I thought we played well in the first half," said MSU Coach Donnie Tyndall. "Then, in the second half, the trademark Louisville defense gave us a lot of trouble.
"We now have to turn our attention to the conference games coming up in early January."
The Eagles will take a few days off for the holidays, then return to campus to begin preparations for the 2008 portion of their schedule. MSU will return to Ohio Valley Conference play when they travel to Nashville to take on Tennessee State at 8:30 p.m. EST on Jan. 3.

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