No. 11 Louisville tapped into its reserves on Saturday as it blew past visiting Morehead State 107-57.
Obinna Ekezie Jr. (20), Karter Knox (15) and Isaac Ellis (10) combined for 45 points off the bench. They combined for 22 in the first half to help the Cardinals (2-0) turn a 9-2 deficit into a 46-33 halftime advantage.
Bench players accounted for 56 of Louisville’s points.
The Cardinals scored 40 of the first 42 points in the second half, including 33 straight over a stretch of 10:17.
Ekezie, a 7-foot-2 freshman, scored eight in that stretch. Overall, he went 8-for-12 from the floor, including 3-for-6 from beyond the 3-point arc. He also grabbed 13 rebounds as Louisville dominated on the boards 59-23.
Seven Cardinals scored in double figures, including four starters. Adrian Wooley added 12 on 3-for-5 shooting, Seth Trimble shot 5-for-9 to score 11, and Alvaro Folgueiras and Flory Bidunga finished with 10 each. Folguerias added six assists.
Louisville shot 53.6 percent (37-for-69) from the floor and 34.2 percent (13-for-38) from beyond the 3-point arc.
The Eagles (1-2), who won the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title last season, suffered their worst loss since Xavier beat them 101-49 on Nov. 10, 2017. They shot 33.3 percent from the floor (21-for-63) and from beyond the 3-point arc (6-for-18), but Louisville held them to just 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) and 2-for-8 (25 percent) shooting, respectively, after halftime.
Clayton Parker led Morehead State with 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field and 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc. He scored 12 of his points in the first half, going 4-for-5 on 3-point shots.
Morehead State led 9-2 in the first four minutes. Louisville took the lead for good, 20-18, on the first of back-to-back 3s by Ellis midway through the first half and used a 17-3 run to go ahead 42-25 with 3:10 remaining
Saturday’s win marked the third 50-point victory for Louisville in Pat Kelsey’s three years as coach.