Box Score

The Fairleigh Dickinson men's basketball team fell on the road Saturday evening at Louisville (No. 4 ESPN/USA Today; No. 5 Associated Press), 80-58, at the KFC Yum! Center in downtown Louisville, KY.  With the victory, the Cardinals improve to 9-0 on the season, while the Knights fall to 1-8 overall.

Junior Melquan Bolding (Mt. Vernon, N.Y./Bishop Stepinac) led the Knights with 23 points as he canned 5-of-10 from three-point range.  Grad student George Goode (Raytown, MO/Raytown South), who was making his return to Louisville, picked up his third-straight double-double with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds to share game high honors.  Junior Lonnie Hayes (Cincinnati, Ohio/Harmony Prep) tied a career high with six assists and also had two steals.

With the Knights down 7-6 early on, the Cardinals went on a 13-2 run to go ahead 19-7 with 13:42 left before halftime. 

FDU was still down only nine at 27-18 after a dunk by Goode with 6:18 to go in the first half, but Louisville answered with a 10-0 run in about a three and a half minute stretch to take a 37-18 lead with 2:39 to go before halftime.

The Knights were able to cut the lead down to 14, but the Cardinals were able to stretch the lead back out to 19 as they went into the break with a 44-25 lead.

FDU shot only 31.3 percent (10-of-32) in the first half, while Louisville shot 46.9 percent (15-of-32) and out-rebounded the Knights, 26-18.  The Cardinals also hit three more three-pointers (4 to 1) and made six more free throws (10 to 4).

Early in the second half, Hayes found Goode for a layup to cut the lead to 47-33, but Louisville scored seven straight to go up 54-33 with 16:52 left in the game.

The Cardinals then outscored the Knights, 21-11, to take their largest lead of the game, 75-44, with 6:36 to go. 

FDU then outscored Louisville, 14-5, over the final 6:07 of the game to make the final score 80-58.

FDU shot 40.7 percent (11-of-27) in the second half and knocked down 5-of-12 three's to finish the game shooting 35.6 percent (21-of-59).  They hit 6-of-16 three's but only went 10-of-21 from the free throw line.

Louisville cooled off in the final 20 minutes and finished the game shooting 42.9 percent (27-of-63) and also knocked down 9-of-29 from behind-the-arc.  The Cardinals also struggled from the free throw line as they made only 17-of-27.

The Knights were out-rebounded, 50-36, as Louisville also grabbed 19 offensive rebounds for 17 second chance points.  After turning the ball over 21 times last time out at Stony Brook, FDU only turned it over 12 times, while the Cardinals gave the ball up on 10 different occasions. 

“We have not seen defensive pressure like that all season, but I thought we did a good job against the No. 4 team in the country,” Head Coach Greg Vetrone said.  “ Our game plan was to extend the zone, and Louisville was able to get some offensive rebounds off us which hurt.”

“George Goode (Raytown, MO/Raytown South) has been playing tremendous,” Vetrone added.  “He has gotten his feat on the ground the last three games with his double-doubles.”

“We are not panicking despite our 1-8 record.  We have guys who have not played together very long and do not quite have the game savvy needed yet.  It is going to take some time, but once conference play starts in January, we feel we will have put it all together to make a nice run.”

Kyle Kuric led Louisville with 19 points.  Peyton Siva added 16 points and a game-high nine assists.  Gorgui Dieng picked up a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.

The Knights will have an 11-day break for finals and will finally return home to Stratis Arena on Wednesday, Dec. 21 when they host Vermont out of the America East Conference.  Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. in Hackensack, NJ.