University of Louisville men’s basketball earns its first ACC win under coach Pat Kelsey with a 90-76 victory at Florida State on Saturday afternoon.
“I have a lot of respect for coach (Leonard) Hamilton and Florida State,” Kelsey said. “I played against him twice when I was at Winthrop and they beat the gates on us. In my eight years at Wake Forest, back in the day, I played against him for so long and he’s the longest tenured coach in the ACC. He’s a coaching icon and he’s so respected.
“I have so much respect for how hard their teams play. They are so disruptive defensively. They make you play in a different way than everyone else wants to play. But I think our guys did a good job offensively, first of all playing with a lot of composure. We have to fight them because they are so disruptive. To come out of a game against a team that forces turnovers as well as anyone in the country and have 18 assists and seven turnovers, it’s proof that our guys play under control, play with balance and continue to make a simple game.
“Both of them (Noah Waterman and Reyne Smith) are elite shooters and stepped up and made some really big shots tonight. We are very lucky. Road and conference wins are very difficult, especially against a team like this, so we’re lucky.
Louisville led 36-34 at halftime.
Louisville came out strong in the second half and used a 13-5 run to take a 50-41 lead with 15:26 on the clock. Florida State cut its deficit to just three points with an 8-0 run, but the Cards quickly responded with a 3-pointer from Reyne Smith and another from Chucky Hepburn to keep the Seminoles at arm’s length.
Starting at the 8:44 mark, Smith hit back-to-back 3s to start an 8-0 run for the Cards, giving them a 12-point lead with seven and a half minutes remaining. The run ultimately decided the game as the Seminoles never got closer than six minutes into the 5:52 mark. Louisville iced it with six free throws to close the game.
Hepburn and Terrence Edwards Jr. recorded eight assists each, the first time two Cardinals had eight or more assists in the same game since March 16, 2013 against Syracuse, when Peyton Siva and Gorgei Deng had eight. That number marks a career high for Edwards Jr. as he paired it with 19 points on 6-of-13 shooting. He also moved closer to a triple-double with seven rebounds.
Smith, who shoots well, made 6 of 9 from beyond the arc and scored a season and game-high 27 points.
As a team, Louisville made 15 3-pointers, marking the first time since February 1, 2022 that a Cardinal team achieved this feat. This is only the 12th case since the 2004-05 season.
Florida State was led in scoring by Jamir Watkins who went 9 of 15 from the field and scored 25 total points. He added three rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal in his 35 minutes of action.
Louisville will return home for its non-conference finale against Eastern foe Kentucky on Saturday, December 28 at 11 a.m. CT. The game will air on The CW.
