Ryan Conwell scored 26 points for No. 16 Louisville, which won its ACC opener for the first time in four seasons as the visiting Cardinals manhandled the Cal Bears 90-70 in Berkeley on Tuesday.
Louisville (11-2) once again was without freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr., as the five-star recruit missed his third straight game with a back injury. The Cardinals, though, did not miss Brown as they scored the first 10 points and then enjoyed a 12-2 run to go up 31-13 after a Conwell 3-pointer with 8:01 left in the first half.
Adrian Wooley, Brown’s substitute in the starting lineup, posted a season-high 21 in the win. Sananda Fru recorded the first double-double of his career as the 6-foot-11 German finished with 13 points and a season-high 14 rebounds.
It didn’t matter where Louisville was shooting in the first half, as the Cardinals connected on 54.3% of their shots (19 of 35). They made 8 of 17 3-pointers and outscored the Bears 22-4 in the paint, as the lead eventually grew to 36-15.
Defensively, the Cardinals held Cal to a season-low 33.9% shooting (20 of 59). Chris Bell finished with 20, and Justin Pippen added 17, but the Bears (12-2) saw their nine-game winning streak end.
Louisville’s foul trouble allowed the Bears to climb back from deficits of more than 20 points a couple of times, but Cal was never able to get the Cardinals’ lead under double figures in the second half. A dead-ball technical foul on Vangelis Zougris allowed the Bears to score seven points in three seconds and cap a 14-0 run on a Bell 3-pointer with 6:44 remaining.
That made it 73-62, but the Cardinals responded with a 17-2 run that erased any hopes of a Cal comeback. Conwell scored 10 straight himself to make it 90-64 with 1:09 left.
The last time Louisville won its ACC opener came on Dec. 4, 2021, when the Cardinals won 73-68 at North Carolina State.
–Field Level Media
