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Louisville opens Big East play with win over South Florida

Thu 8th, January 2009

Tampa, FL (Sports Network) - Earl Clark finished with 22 points and nine rebounds, as 23rd-ranked Louisville opened its Big East slate with a 71-57 win over South Florida.

Edgar Sosa added 12 points for the Cardinals (10-3, 1-0 Big East), who have won two in a row since a loss to UNLV on New Year's Eve. Louisville had opened Big East play with a loss in each of the past four seasons, but this season began league play with a road win.

"By and large we played really good basketball," said Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. "I'm very happy with the victory. We executed offensively and defensively as well as we did in the last game, and in the last two games, for the first time this season, we've taken less than five challenged shots. Most teams can average around 10 to 30, but that's our goal: to average fewer than five because that is our Achilles heel."

However, the Cardinals did so against the only team in the Big East -- which has nine teams ranked in the AP Top 25 -- with a losing record. South Florida (5-9, 0-2) has lost four of its last five games overall, and two in a row, after opening its Big East schedule last Friday with a loss to Syracuse.

Dominique Jones had 11 points and five boards in the loss for the Bulls, while Augustus Gilchrist also chipped in 11 points.

"Their depth really fatigued us as the game went on, and Clark was big tonight," South Florida head coach Stan Heath said. "The league is tough and we just have to continue to get better. I thought we fought pretty hard, we played to the end."

The game was back-and-forth through the opening stages of the first half, and just before the midway point Gilchrist's jumper brought USF within 14-13. But Louisville went on a 14-2 run over the next four minutes, with Clark scoring nine of his team's points.

His three-pointer with 6 1/2 minutes to play put the Cardinals up 28-15, though the Bulls countered with six consecutive points and went into the intermission trailing just 32-26.

Several minutes into the second half, though, Clark's free throw capped a five-point burst that put Louisville up 37-27.

The Cardinals continued to lead by nearly 10 points, then used another run to widen their lead. After three free throws from Jones got USF within 49-41, Louisville went on a 12-2 run. Clark again ended the surge with a trey, giving the Cardinals a 61-43 advantage with just under six minutes to play, and they never led by less than 10 the rest of the way.

Game Notes

Louisville plays Villanova in Philadelphia on Saturday...USF travels to Chicago to play DePaul on Saturday...Louisville shot 42.9 percent overall, but made just 7-of-25 three-point attempts (28.0 percent)...USF shot better (5- for-11, 45.5 percent) from beyond the arc than it did overall (36.5 percent).