Swopshire lead Louisville past St. John’s 75-68

LOUISVILLE— Preston Knowles knew his energy was a big factor in keeping Louisville in tight games. Saturday afternoon against St. Johns, the rest of the world saw just how vital it is in the Cardinals 75-68 victory in Freedom Hall.

Trailing 32-28 at halftime, Louisville coach Rick Pitino started Knowles in the second half in place of senior Edgar Sosa, who was benched due to poor first half play. The junior guard ignited the team offensively, scoring six of the Cardinals first 10 points on his way to 12 points on the game.

“That’s something I hang my hat on, my energy, every night,” Knowles said. “Like last game, it was Jerry (Smith), and it only takes one spark with us, everyone out there giving their all and their energy for everybody else to give their all and step up their game.”

That energy wasn’t readily evident in the first half. The Cardinals (12-4, 3-0 Big East Conference) and the Red Storm (10-5, 0-3 Big East) were forced to grind the first half out due to sloppy ball-handling and poor shooting. Sosa, the Cardinals leading scorer on the season at 14 points per game, was held scoreless in the first half.

Both teams were able to sustain small runs to keep the game in single digits, with a Dwight Hardy 3-pointer at the buzzer giving St. Johns a 32-28 halftime lead.

Louisville shot 33 percent (10-for-30) in the first half, including 16 percent (2-for-12) from 3-point range. The Red Storm managed to shoot 39 percent (11-for-28).

Following the early second half spark from Knowles, Sosa re-entered the game at the 13:30 mark in the second half and hit three 3-pointers in the next five minutes that keyed a 12-1 run by the Cardinals with midway through the second half gave Louisville a 58-46 lead at the 7:51 mark.

“I thought the key to the game was Preston and Kyle Kuric,” Pitino said. “I thought Kyle made so many good plays on the backboard and he kept our emotions going and I thought Preston made some key plays.”

St. Johns never recovered from the Cardinal run, but scored baskets late to keep the final margin in single digits.

“Louisville did a terrific job in the second half,” St. Johns head coach Norm Roberts said. “They made shots and we didn’t. I thought the key to the game was Louisville did a good job on the offensive glass and getting to the 50-50 balls.”

The Cardinals outrebounded the Red Storm 44-33, including 19-10 on the offensive boards, leading to 18 second chance points.

Though his play was poor early on, it wasn’t for a lack of effort that Pitino sat Sosa at the beginning of the second half.

“I was upset at Edgar, but I wasn’t taking him out of the starting lineup because I was upset at him,” Pitino said. “I took him out of the starting lineup because we had to make a run in the first 3 minutes of play. We had to turn around at that point and the only way to do that is on defense.”

Jerry Smith led the Cardinals with 16 points, including a 12-for-14 day from the free throw line and Jared Swopshire scored a career-high 14 points in the victory for Louisville. Samardo Samuels capped the game eight points with a game-high 11 rebounds

D.J. Kennedy led all scorers with 20 points for the Red Storm. Paris Horne chipped in 15 points for St. Johns in the loss.

Louisville capped the game shooting 40 percent from the field (24-for-59). St. Johns shot 43 percent (26-for-60).

The game also marked the return of St. Johns forward Anthony Mason, Jr., who missed the last season-and-a-half due to injury.