Game Preview: Louisville vs. St. Francis (NY) - SCACCHoops.com

Game Preview: Louisville vs. St. Francis (NY)

by Card Chronicle

Posted: 11/24/2015 1:16:24 PM


The Terriers return 50 percent of their offense from a 2014-15 team that won the Northeast Conference's regular season title and came within 4 points of playing in the NCAA Tournament. St. Francis enters Tuesday night's game with three players averaging double figures, led by senior forward Jon Doss (11.0 ppg). Depth is not an issue for the squad, which currently boasts nine players averaging at least 16.3 minutes per game.

St. Francis has already faced two tough road tests, falling 75-49 at Boston College in their season-opener and 76-60 at Louisville's next opponent, Saint Louis. The Terriers lone home tilt to this point is a 93-67 trouncing of Mount St. Vincent. Junior guard Yunus Hopkins erupted for a career-high 25 points in that game, connecting on 5 of 8 attempts from behind the 3-point line.

Before the season, St. Francis was picked to finish fifth in the NEC. The team also returns Amdy Fall, the 2015 NEC Defensive Player of the Year. Fall has blocked six shots thus far this season.

Notable

--Louisville has won 37 consecutive home games in November, last losing to Vanderbilt on November 30, 1972.

--St. Francis is one of the five original Division-I teams that have never played in the NCAA Tournament, a group that also includes Northwestern, William & Mary, Army, and The Citadel. The Terriers lost to Robert Morris 66-63 in last year's NEC tournament championship game.

--Louisville enters this game ranking third nationally in field goal percentage defense (.290)

--Tonight is a homecoming of sorts for St. Francis freshman forward Keon Williams and sophomore forward Jagos Lasic. Williams scored more than 1,000 points in his career at John Hardin High School and finished fourth on the school's all-time scoring list. As a senior at Morgan County High School in West Liberty Kentucky, Lasic averaged 21 points and 15 rebounds per game and was selected to play in the Kentucky-Ohio All-Star Game.

--Louisville has opened with an 11-1 record each of the last three seasons.

--Louisville's 126 victories over the last five years are the second-most wins in the nation in that stretch. Louisville and Wichita State are the only schools in the nation to win 30 games in three of the last four seasons, including a school-record 35 victories amassed by Louisville's 2012-13 NCAA Championship team.

--With just eight turnovers against North Florida, Louisville has committed nine or fewer turnovers in six of its last seven games dating back to last season.

--Louisville lost its only previous matchup with St. Francis Brooklyn, falling 60-55 in the 1954 National Invitation Tournament in New York's Madison Square Garden (3-6-54) as Vlad Gastevich led the Cardinals with 11 points. The postseason tournament featured 12 teams at that time.

--Louisville has won 39 of its last 40 home games against non-conference opponents.

Ken Pomeroy Prediction: Louisville 77, St. Francis 58

 

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